Evidence to the Scottish Parliament's Rural Affairs and Environment Committee on rural housing

• The Rural Housing Inquiry should support the case for a programme of Rural Housing Enablers in Scotland. This would have an immediate impact within this parliamentary term.

• As well as important issues of housing supply and development, the importance of sustaining households within their homes is equally worthy of attention.

• Scotland’s flagship commitments on homelessness form an important backdrop to the Inquiry. However, some concerns are not well-evidenced and the evidence which is available tends to affirm the importance of addressing the housing shortage.

• The planning system has much greater potential to deliver affordable housing than is currently the case; for the immediate period Shelter believes the focus should be on enhancing capacity and skills rather than necessarily seeking further high-level change.

• The Inquiry should press the Scottish Government to make clearer its intentions in funding affordable housing if and when council tax is replaced.

• Proposed reforms to exempt new build homes from Right to Buy should be extended to give a general discretion to determine the scale and rate of sales dependent on market circumstances.

• Shelter has detailed specific proposals to facilitate a separate sub-sector of private landlords, operating at the boundary between social renting and commercial letting.