7. To ask the Scottish Government what support it offers to local authorities to help reduce the number of people on social housing waiting lists. (S6O-02702)

I will probably touch again on some of the points that I mentioned in response to Jackie Baillie’s question.

The Scottish Government is supporting local authorities and registered social landlords with a range of approaches to local housing stock management, including large-scale flipping of tenancies, effective void management and greater allocations to homeless households. We will target £2 million at local authorities that face the most significant temporary accommodation pressures to support stock management activity and provide the resource needed to deploy capital moneys effectively.

We are also making £3.5 billion available over this parliamentary session for the delivery of the 110,000 affordable homes target, with at least 70 per cent of homes to be for social rent. Indeed, I should point out that, in Sharon Dowey’s South Scotland region, there has been an increase in that respect from the previous parliamentary session of £107 million—or more than 20 per cent.

Official statistics show that there are more than 240,000 people on social housing waiting lists, with 100,000 children waiting for a social housing placement. Councils are being overwhelmed with applications from people in need, but the Government has presided over a series of cuts to council and housing budgets. Will the Scottish Government increase the funding to councils so that they can help people to find the homes that they need?

I will make a number of points on that. When I go round speaking to local authorities and housing associations, I find that the biggest barrier to building more houses just now is inflation. Construction inflation has been around 15 to 20 per cent, which has meant that the £3.5 billion budget that we had set aside has effectively been cut in value by £700 million. That is the biggest bit of feedback that I am getting. If members speak to housing associations and local authorities, they will be told the same thing.

One of the key things is, as I mentioned in response to Jackie Baillie’s question, the local housing allowance. A study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that only 5 per cent of properties were suitable for people on benefits. Sharon Dowey could be really helpful if she spoke to her United Kingdom colleagues about this, because if the local housing allowance were unfrozen, we would see a massive difference in what we could do with our powers here.

Will the minister advise what effect the cut in the UK Government’s capital funding allocation this year is having on the Scottish Government’s ability to support local authorities to invest in social housing? What impact does he expect the anticipated 16 per cent real-terms UK Government cut to capital over the next five years to have on social housing provision?

The impact of the UK Government’s economic mismanagement is causing soaring inflation—as I touched on in my previous answer—and on-going austerity, and it is putting pressure on the Scottish Government’s budget. Because the UK Government did not inflation proof its capital budget, there will be a 7 per cent real-terms fall in our Barnett capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28, which will significantly impact on our ability to deliver on our capital infrastructure commitments.

Our £752 million budget this year has been supplemented by a £15 million contribution from the heat in buildings fund and donations from our charitable bond programme, which will enable us to invest in more socially rented homes.