Glasgow councillors urge Scottish Government to reverse cut to housing budget to help homeless

Glasgow councillors are urging the Scottish Government to reverse a cut to the affordable housing budget to help families who are homeless or in temporary accommodation.

Council officials have reported the delivery of 6,500 new homes in the city is “at risk” with the city expected to receive just over £78m from the government, rather than the £104m it had expected.

Glasgow declared a housing emergency in November last year due to rising homelessness. The Scottish Government declared a national emergency last week.

The city’s Labour group deputy leader Cllr Soryia Siddique has sent a letter to new First Minister John Swinney asking him to reconsider a “net cut of £120m” to the housing budget.

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And Cllr Thomas Kerr, Glasgow Conservatives leader, has urged the city’s housing convener Cllr Kenny McLean, SNP, to push the government into a u-turn.

He described the cut as a “devastating blow for those desperate to get onto the housing ladder, families who are languishing in temporary accommodation, or those who have been made homeless”.

Cllr Siddique’s letter highlighted the “very detrimental effect on children’s welfare and life opportunities of homelessness and living in temporary housing accommodation”, after Mr Swinney said tackling child poverty was his priority.

When the council declared a housing emergency, there were more than 5,200 open homelessness cases and “990 children had spent between one and two years in temporary accommodation”, she said.

Cllr Siddique added social housing is “key to reducing homelessness” in Scotland, and reduced spending would mean the Scottish Government could not meet its affordable house building objectives.

“This money is urgently required to progress building, acquiring, and adapting houses to meet the exceptional demand,” she added.

Glasgow Labour’s deputy leader also asked Mr Swinney to speed up work on compulsory sales orders (CSOs), which council officials believe could be the solution for up to 50% of empty homes in the city.

CSOs could mean owners are forced to sell if they don’t invest or repair their properties. “Acquiring these houses for the social housing sector would make a major contribution to addressing the housing emergency in Glasgow,” Cllr Siddique said.

She added the “argument that the blame for this cut is entirely due to Westminster reducing the capital budget” cannot be accepted.

The Scottish Government’s housing minister Paul McLennan said: “The housing emergency is one of the defining issue of a generation — caused by soaring inflation as a result of UK Government economic mismanagement, and its almost 9% cut in the Scottish Government’s capital budget.

“Tackling the emergency will require the Scottish and UK Governments and local authorities to work together to tackle it.

“Scotland has led the UK in housing by delivering more than 128,000 affordable homes since 2007. We are investing nearly £600m in affordable housing this financial year, the majority of which will be for social rent. In 2024/25, we are making available £78 million for Glasgow City Council.

“We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026/26 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability.

“We are working with the financial community in Scotland, and elsewhere, to boost private sector investment and help deliver more homes.”

Cllr Kerr said he was concerned that “savage cuts” to the housing budget would mean “crucial” housebuildings targets would be missed.

“SNP ministers might finally have u-turned and agreed there is a housing emergency, but this cannot merely be lip service,” he added. “They need to reverse their brutal cuts and give Glasgow City Council the resources it needs to deliver homes for Glaswegians.”

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A council spokesman said: “Given the housing need in the city and the number of major housing-led regeneration projects in Glasgow, we are keen to secure the funding needed to deliver a significant scaling up in the delivery of the pipeline of new homes.

“To do this, we will continue to work with the Scottish Government, our partners in the registered social landlord sector and the wider housing sector to support the case for additional investment that can be used to increase the supply of affordable housing in the city and alleviate the housing pressures we now face.”

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations has described the budget cut as a “hammer blow” and called for the government to ramp up investment in affordable rented housing.