A coalition of Scottish charities, frontline service providers and academics have called on the Scottish Government to ‘Build like Burnham’ by delivering at least 15,693 quality affordable homes a year to end Scotland’s housing emergency, as the new Prime Minister pledges to unleash what he calls “the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period” south of the border.
The coalition of 40 organisations across the housing and homelessness sector – convened by Homeless Network Scotland – has pointed to Andy Burnham’s promise that housing will be among his top priorities as Prime Minister and has cited research commissioned by Shelter Scotland on the number of homes needed.
The expert coalition urged the Scottish Government to commit to matching that ambition while ensuring any additional Barnett funding is diverted towards social housebuilding programmes.
The call comes as figures released last month showed that the Scottish Government is falling short on its housebuilding targets with 6,832 affordable homes built in the last year – 8% down on the previous year. Last year the number of new housing starts in Scotland slumped to the lowest level in over a decade with the figures leading to growing concern that Holyrood is on course to miss its target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.
Scotland’s housing emergency continues to be disastrous for the almost 34,000 households assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness- the equivalent of one household every 15 minutes.
The impact on the national finances is also ruinous, with figures showing councils were forced to spend over £100million in 2024-25 just to house people in unsuitable temporary accommodation such as hostels or B&Bs due to a shortage of housing.
Maggie Brünjes, chief executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said: “Scotland’s stalled social housing programme means there are nearly 250,000 people on housing waiting lists while councils continue to spend tens of millions of pounds just to keep people in the limbo of temporary accommodation including costly, poor quality hotels and B&Bs.
“We know what the answer to this is, so it was encouraging to hear the incoming Prime Minister single out housebuilding as one of his top priorities for England. It is time for Scotland to also now ‘Build like Burnham’ and deliver the 15,693 quality social homes every year of this new parliament that research shows is needed to meet the scale of the challenge
“If Andy Burnham’s investment in housing leads to more Barnett funding for Holyrood then the Scottish Government must also commit to putting every penny of that towards the existing social housing budget and move towards the £8.8billion that sector leaders are clear is needed to meet the level of homebuilding required.
“The housing emergency requires an emergency response but far too much public money continues to be spent on temporary accommodation and responding to crisis after it has already happened. Homelessness is not inevitable. We know what works and this is now a critical moment for Ministers in Holyrood to scale up on their ambitions and double down on delivery.”
Full list of coalition signatories
- Aberdeen Foyer
- Aberdeen Cyrenians
- All in for Change
- Bethany Christian Trust
- Blue Triangle
- Centre for Homelessness and Inclusion Health, University of Edinburgh
- Churches Action of the Homeless
- Citizens Advice Scotland
- Crossreach
- Cyrenians
- Fife Gingerbread
- Frontline Fife
- Glasgow City Mission
- Glasgow Women’s Aid
- Hillcrest Futures
- Homeless Network Scotland
- Housing Options
- I-SPHERE
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Legal Services Agency
- LHM 360
- The Marie Trust
- Move On
- Policy Scotland
- Refugee Sanctuary Scotland
- Right There
- Rock Trust
- Rowan Alba
- Say Women
- Shakti
- The Salvation Army
- Scottish Refugee Council
- Simon Community Scotland
- Social Bite
- Street Connect
- Street Soccer Scotland
- The Talbot Association
- Transform Community Development
- Turning Point Scotland