3. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to support the provision of social housing. (S5O-00799)

The provision of social housing is and will remain a priority for the Government. We are committed to maintaining and expanding our social housing stock as part of creating a fairer society. To do that, we have clearly set out our ambition by committing over £3 billion-worth of funding for the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes in the current session of Parliament. Of those, 35,000 will be for social housing, which is an increase of 75 per cent on our previous social rented target, which as we know was not only achieved but exceeded.

A recent reply to Alex Rowley MSP said that there has been slow progress towards the Scottish Government’s target of achieving 35,000 social rented properties, with only 6,000 forecast to be completed. Given that backdrop, it was something of a surprise to find out last week at the Finance and Constitution Committee, when Derek Mackay presented evidence on the spring budget revision, that there is an underspend of £20 million in the housing budget, which has been allocated elsewhere. If the minister thinks that housing is a priority, does he not agree that that is an outrage and that he should seek even at this late stage to reverse the decision and ensure that the £20 million is spent in this financial year?

I think that Mr Kelly was at the Finance and Constitution Committee on Wednesday 15 March, when that matter was discussed. We have had a healthy and encouraging start to the programme, with a rise of over 20 per cent in new-build starts of affordable homes approved in 2016. The figure of £20 million that Mr Kelly quoted relates to money from the affordable homes supply programme that was given back to the capital departmental expenditure limit to be redistributed, with the understanding that it would be reallocated to the AHSP at a later date.

To reiterate, we have committed £3 billion of resource over the course of this session of Parliament. If Mr Kelly is looking for scandals, the biggest scandal is that, in the last term of the Labour-Liberal coalition, it managed to build a total of only six council houses in Scotland.

What investment will the Scottish Government make in social housing in South Lanarkshire over this parliamentary session and how many social housing homes will that provide?

The Scottish Government will make available more than £35 million to South Lanarkshire Council in 2016-17 and 2017-18 for the delivery of its affordable housing priorities. It will be used to deliver an estimated 600 completed homes for social rent over those two years.

We know that councils need as much notice as possible of their full resource planning assumptions for 2018-19 and beyond, which is why later this year the Scottish Government will bring forward for councils a new offer of resource planning assumptions to March 2021.

It is interesting to hear how much money is going to South Lanarkshire. What is the minister doing to ensure that money goes to smaller housing associations not just in South Lanarkshire but across the country?

I know that Graham Simpson has asked similar questions before. What I want to see across the country is co-operation between all partners to deliver the 50,000 affordable homes. As Mr Simpson is well aware, I have been looking at councils’ strategic housing investment plans and looking very closely at the involvement that community-based housing associations have in delivery. I said to the Local Government and Communities Committee that I would report back to it after analysis of those SHIPs was complete and I intend to do that. I will endeavour to let Mr Simpson know exactly what the situation on community-based housing associations is at that point.