Fourth Scottish council declares housing emergency

A fourth local authority in Scotland has declared a housing emergency.

Fife Council representatives voted in favour of a motion at its meeting on Thursday, noting “with great concern” the “extreme pressures” in housing and homelessness services across the area.

The motion also called on the Scottish Government to reverse its much-criticised cut in the housing budget for the year ahead, which ministers blamed on a lack of capital funding from the UK Government.

Similar motions have been passed by councillors in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Argyll and Bute, but MSPs rejected a Labour push to declare a nationwide housing emergency.

Speaking after the meeting, Labour councillor Judy Hamilton said the council had “worked very hard” to avert the need for a declaration, but they “now have no choice”.

The biggest contributor, she said, to fixing the homelessness problem is the continued building of social housing, describing the cut to the housing budget as “extremely concerning”.

She added: “We are now officially therefore declaring a housing emergency.

“We will now work with partners to bring forward a housing emergency action plan to the cabinet committee in June, supplementing and accelerating actions already agreed.”

Scottish Tory housing spokesman Miles Briggs said the Government “cannot keep denying reality” and should declare a nationwide housing emergency.

“They have failed to get a grip on this situation for too long and last month shamefully slashed the housing budget by almost £200 million while also short-changing our councils who are unable to give people the housing they need,” he said.

“Homelessness levels have soared as a result and a record number of children are living in temporary accommodation.

Housing minister Paul McLennan said: “Scotland has led the UK in housing by delivering more than 126,000 affordable homes since 2007. We are investing £752 million in affordable housing this financial year, the majority of which will be for social rent.

“Fife has benefited in 2023-24 from a core allocation of nearly £35 million and an additional £7 million in-year boost.

“I regularly engage with Fife Council to find solutions to the housing pressures they are facing, including making sure they work with the Empty Homes Partnership to bring more empty properties back into use to increase housing stock.

“The UK Government failed to inflation-proof their capital budget and this has resulted in nearly a 10% real terms cut in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

“Likewise, our financial transactions budget – key to delivering affordable housing – has been cut by 62%. This is on top of the disastrous impact Brexit has had on construction supply chain issues, labour shortages and the inflationary pressures driven by UK Government financial mismanagement.”