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Scottish housing associations criticise Budget settlement
The Scottish Budget settlement does not do enough on investment in housing adaptations, Scottish housing associations have said.
Funding from the Scottish government for adapting homes has effectively been frozen for the past seven years, according to the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA), which called for more investment.
The Scottish National Party, which governs at Holyrood in a minority government, last night reached an eleventh-hour agreement with the Green Party to pass its Budget.
Last month the government confirmed it will put £826m of its 2019/20 Budget into affordable housing, an increase of £70m on the amount in the current year’s programme.
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SFHA welcomed this increase but also urged the government to commit to funding beyond the lifetime of this parliament, which ends in 2021.
After the agreement with the Green Party was struck, Sally Thomas, chief executive of the SFHA, said: “We are deeply disappointed that investment in adaptations has effectively been frozen for the past seven years. The number of people needing their homes adapted to enable them to live healthier, more independent lives has increased substantially.
“A recent SFHA member survey revealed that many housing associations run out of the vital funding required to put in adaptations for people who need them half way through the year. That needs to change, and this is a classic example of effective preventative spend that needs to be significantly increased.”
Ms Thomas cited statistics from the national programme Technology Enabled Care which found that falls in Scotland cost the NHS £500,000 per day.
She pointed out that it would be much cheaper to install handrails and additional lighting in housing, which could help prevent falls.
Last month, communities secretary Aileen Campbell told the Local Government and Communities Committee that the Scottish government was working on plans to make its housing suitable for an ageing populations.
Ms Campbell did not reveal any details but did say: “We need to make sure that those houses that we’re building are fit for purpose, not just in the here and now but also in the future.
“So alongside the current ambition on delivery [of 50,000 new affordable homes], we’re also working around what that vision will look like beyond 2021 as well, working through with partners around the changing demographics, the different ways we’ll need to ensure innovations around different building techniques and all those things that enable us to adapt those homes to be suitable for people’s changing needs.”
