Shelter demands extra £200m for Scottish social housing

The Scottish division of a UK housing charity has called for an extra £200m a year to tackle poor housing and homelessness.

Shelter Scotland has urged the Scottish government to make affordable homes for rent a priority in the upcoming budget.

The money would help to build 10,000 of homes each year for the next three years, said director Graeme Brown.

The call was made as MSPs and Scottish ministers ended their summer break and returned to Holyrood.

Brown said there had never been a more pressing need for investment in affordable homes to rent.

The charity added that the recent rise in the number of affordable homes being built had been offset by properties being sold under right-to-buy legislation.

Jacqui Wyatt, chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, supported Shelter's call for more funding.

“Due to money being brought forward to be spent this year, housing associations are seeing gaps opening up in their housing budgets for future years,” the BBC reported Wyatt as saying.

It also reported a spokesman for the Scottish government as saying it was “pulling out all the stops” to increase the supply of affordable homes.

“We will approve grants for a record breaking 8,100 affordable homes this year, backed by £644m,” he said. “We are investing £50m to reverse decades of decline in council house building.”