Dispatches from 2026 Scotland Housing Festival

He was later challenged on this by a former homeless person’s officer and CIH member of 50 years in the audience, who asked how reviving the policy would help “when my experience tells me that it’s an absolute disaster”.

Mr Kerr insisted that the party would not be bringing in Right to Buy “the way it was”, and more detail will be in its manifesto, but acknowledged the 1980s policy should have brought more investment back into the sector, and this was “where it failed”.

Other policies Reform is backing include reintroducing the local connection test into homelessness legislation, ending Glasgow’s status as a designated UK dispersal site for asylum seekers, giving councils compulsory purchase order powers and encouraging investment into town centres and brownfield sites.

He added that they party aims to “cut green tape” by removing environmental regulations, scrap rent controls “that have done more harm than good” and simplify planning.

Labour focuses on planning as it targets over 52,000 affordable homes 

Mark Griffin, from Labour, told the conference of the need to confront “structural failures” including planning delays, stalled sites, workforce shortages, unpredictable funding and “above all a failure to increase supply”.

The MSP for Central Scotland said his party would transform the government’s planning hub into a “proper planning agency”, give councils extra capacity, overhaul planning fees for “full cost recovery”, allow SMEs to defer payments until completion and reintroduce a presumption in favour of sustainable development.

The party is also backing “regional housing development trusts” created by councils and registered social landlords that would co-ordinate land and delivery and create 9,000 apprenticeships in “key growth sectors”, including construction.

In line with developments below the border, Labour in Scotland want to see a national housing bank that would provide long-term, low-cost finance to help unlock stalled sites.

Overall the party would aim to deliver 52,000 affordable homes in the next parliament, of which the majority, some 6,500 per year, would be social homes and more than 20,000 would be for mid-market rent.

Liberal Democrats call for “whole-system approach” to get the country building

Willie Rennie from the Liberal Democrats said the priority should be investment from all sectors, and using everyone’s talents to build good-quality homes.

The North East Fife MSP added: “We need a whole-system approach, and sometimes we do things in a disjointed way that creates policies that are in tension with each other.”

He wants to see planning departments and housebuilding companies work together to create standardised designs that can “swiftly go through”, which he believes could increase factory build construction if there is confidence in the system.

Mr Rennie also spoke of a need to use the tax system to encourage companies to construct in more difficult areas and public sector powers to make sure utilities are in place “so that building homes is much less risky”.

He called for “really good standards” but urged caution around setting “gold-plated” ones, adding: “The talk about Passivhaus, I don’t think was a good step. I think we should be going for positive, informed standards that can build houses at scale swiftly.”

He also said the new agency could be “a good thing”, as it could give power in the centre to co-ordinate the different parts of the system, but only if the right people are appointed with powers to compel others to work together.

Role of existing homes in tackling crisis stressed by housing secretary

Màiri McAllan, the housing secretary in the ruling SNP government, was part of both the hustings and a panel on renting and the government’s Housing to 2040 strategy.

In a speech before the latter, the MSP for Clydesdale said she believes the current strategy is still relevant and highlighted ways the government is trying to meet it, such as boosting the budget for the affordable housing supply programme (AHSP), bringing in rent controls and rolling out Awaab’s Law in Scotland.

She also stressed the role of current homes, including the government’s investment in acquisitions and voids, and said it would continue to do this if it proves a faster way of providing more homes.

Ms McAllan claimed that “flipping” temporary accommodation into permanent housing “still remains an underutilised way of responding to the housing emergency”, and she has tried to lead the case for this. 

On decarbonisation, the housing secretary said she is “hugely personally committed” to tackling climate change, but this has been “made more difficult” by rising electricity prices and high rates of fuel poverty.

The goal of decarbonising homes “remains absolutely urgent” but “needs to be approached carefully”, so fuel poverty is not made worse.

She confirmed she would consider the CIH’s call for a review of the Scottish social housing charter to include a continuous professional development (CPD) requirement for landlords.