Social Housing (Affordability)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 14 March 2019.

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Photo of Ruth Maguire Ruth Maguire Scottish National Party

1. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that social housing is affordable to tenants. (S5O-02997)

Photo of Kevin Stewart Kevin Stewart Scottish National Party

The Scottish Government does not direct individual social landlords on setting rent levels for their tenancies. Individual social landlords are responsible for setting rents in consultation with their tenants. In doing so, they are required by the Scottish social housing charter to strike a balance between the level of the services that are provided, the cost of the services and how far current and prospective tenants and service users can afford the rents. That means that each social landlord should be considering the ability of its current and future tenants to afford proposed increases in the light of the tenants’ circumstances.

On the issue of mitigating the United Kingdom Government’s welfare reforms, this year we are spending around £50 million to mitigate the bedroom tax, helping over 70,000 households in the social sector that are in receipt of housing benefit or universal credit.

Photo of Ruth Maguire Ruth Maguire Scottish National Party

When I raised the matter last year, the minister informed me that the Scottish Government would be working with social landlords in 2018 to understand how savings could be made in the affordable housing supply, which could be reinvested in keeping rents affordable. I have a constituent who, after a 6 per cent rent increase last year, has seen his rent increase by 6 per cent again this year, with few or no improvements to his home. That was not the increase that was consulted on by the housing association; it includes a further recalibration of rent structures. He told me that his rent has increased by 30 per cent in the past five years. Does the minister agree that action on the affordability of social housing for low-paid workers is urgent?

Photo of Kenneth Macintosh Kenneth Macintosh Labour

Could you adjust your microphone and pull it towards you, minister?

Photo of Kevin Stewart Kevin Stewart Scottish National Party

Certainly, Presiding Officer.

A s Ruth Maguire has noted, the Government is taking an active interest in the issue of affordability—for example, in the context of the tackling child poverty delivery plan—and w e are currently doing research on that issue. The first progress report on child poverty, which will be published in the summer, will set out the progress that we have made on the agenda to date.

I know that social landlords understand the importance of keeping rents affordable and meeting the needs of the people they serve. They must get the right balance between the rents that they set and the level of the services that they provide, including the cost of the services, as I said previously. They must not increase rents without having regard to affordability.

We will continue to work with the sector to agree the best ways to keep rents affordable—for example, through improving procurement capability to deliver efficiencies. I am more than willing to meet Ruth Maguire to discuss the issues relating to her constituent, including whether the constituent has had a financial health check to make sure that he is getting everything to which he is entitled, and the matters concerning the housing association that she talked about.

Photo of Graham Simpson Graham Simpson Conservative

Ruth Maguire has raised a really important issue. Of course, one of the ways to keep rents down or in check is to build more social housing. The Government has committed to building 35,000 houses for social rent, yet, according to the Government’s own figures, in the first two years of this parliamentary session only 8,500 were built, which is way off target.

Will the minister say how he hopes to get the programme back on track?

Photo of Kevin Stewart Kevin Stewart Scottish National Party

On rent affordability, in 2016-17, rents for housing association homes were 18 per cent lower in Scotland than they were in England, and rents for local authority homes were 21 per cent lower. There is a big difference between Scottish National Party-run Scotland and Tory-run England in that regard.

The housing programme is on track. We have said that we will deliver 50,000 affordable homes, with 35,000 of those for social rent, and we are on track to do that. I am sure that Mr Simpson knows that that is the case, because I pontificate about it quite a bit. We will continue to deliver the biggest housing programme since the 1970s in contrast to what is happening south of the border, where there does not seem to be the same ethos in relation to the delivery of social housing.