Housing and social justice secretary: ‘no intention’ of cutting affordable homes budget

In her response, Ms Somerville discussed how public service reform plans apply to her housing and social justice portfolio, stating that for housing it involves assessing whether the current grant system is too complicated.

Asked by Richard Meade, chief executive of the SFHA, if this means the government will not be cutting the £4.1bn, she said: “The £4.1bn was an important part of the reassurance that we gave to the housing sector around multi-year funding.

“So that was one of the key things that the first minister brought in, that was reassured before the election.

“I recognise again in this new session that that multi-year funding reassurance was key to allow people to get on to build. So yep.”

Speaking to Inside Housing after the Q&A, Ms Somerville said she appreciates people’s concerns over budgets and aimed to give examples of how public services can be improved without needing cuts.

“There’s no intention of cutting the affordable homes commitment that we made before,” she said. “We can meet our challenges in other ways.”

Asked about the government’s plans for looking at housing grants, she said this would not involve any “large-scale review” that could impact delivery but pledged to speak to providers across the country.

She suggested that it could look at increasing the flexibility of grants, stating: “If we’re hearing from the sector that actually we have something we want to do, for example in rural and island areas, but we’re not quite fitting the criteria for the different funds that you have, but we’ve got a really good scheme.

“Then the answer to that isn’t for the government to say, ‘Oh that’s a shame, then you need to see what you can do to fit our criteria.’

“We need to challenge ourselves to make sure that actually our funding works for organisations.”

Ms Somerville confirmed that a proposed new housing agency, More Homes Scotland, is in the works and her predecessor’s update on this before the election “still stands”.

She wants to see the agency deliver “less duplication and an easier system for people”, although she stressed that it is “very much in the consultation phases” and she is keen to hear from the sector.

On homelessness, the MSP said the government is “very focused” on the issue of children in temporary accommodation after numbers reached record levels in 2024 and remained above 10,000 last year.

“We do need to get the numbers in temporary accommodation down,” she added.

She pointed out that while some councils have made progress, there is not a “one-size-fits-all solution” and she wants to find out what local authorities need in different parts of Scotland.

For example, a policy of using government cash to ‘flip’ homes from temporary to permanent accommodation has made an “enormous difference” in Ms Somerville’s council area of Fife, she said, but other authorities have either not prioritised this or have faced difficulties doing the same thing.

Ms Somerville also said prevention is key, including initiatives such as funding Women’s Aid to support people leaving domestic abuse to stay in a permanent home.

When Ms Somerville was appointed last month, sector groups in Scotland were disappointed after the new Scottish National Party administration in Holyrood scrapped housing as a standalone cabinet post.