Final briefing on abolishing priority need in Scotland by 2012

The consultation on the priority need statement is a landmark in reaching the Homelessness Task Force’s vision of giving every homeless person the right to a home by 2012. Shelter’s view is that, as the Task Force recommended, progress should take place at the rate of local authorities’ ability to cope, but always with the clear view that the 2012 target is the agreed end point. The statement should be another opportunity for the Executive as a whole to re-affirm its commitment to the internationally acclaimed target.

However, its success is directly dependent on the availability of affordable housing, and therefore a focus on increasing the supply of affordable housing is critical to ensuring the success of the homelessness agenda.

Shelter’s proposals for the expansion and eventual abolition of priority need in 2012 centre on an approach that allows individual local authorities an element of discretion within a planned phasing out of priority need, as long as that is backed by meaningful monitoring and effective sanctions on individual authorities.