Category: News

Cabinet Secretary for Housing Màiri McAllan writes for the Network Briefing

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“A budget is more than just a series of numbers on a page; it is an embodiment of our values”

– Barack Obama

Scotland already has a strong housing and homelessness policy framework, including some of the strongest homelessness rights in the world. By providing the financial backing needed to turn policy ambition into practical action, the 2026-27 Scottish Budget aligns investment with our vision for Scotland as a nation of prosperity, fairness and equality, where no one is left behind.

With a record £926 million committed to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, this represents the largest single funding allocation for affordable housing since records began. This is part of our wider commitment of investing up to £4.9 billion over the next four years to support the delivery of 36,000 affordable homes, including family homes for up to 24,000 children – helping to tackle child poverty and end reliance on unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Everyone deserves somewhere to live that is safe, secure and meets their needs. The Scottish Government wants all temporary accommodation to be of good quality, and we have clear standards in place through the Unsuitable Accommodation Order and temporary accommodation standards framework, which local authorities are expected to meet.

However, I recognise the intense pressures councils are facing as they work to meet their statutory homelessness duties – pressures that have been exacerbated by a shortage of affordable housing, UK Home Office policy and Brexit, as well as global economic factors, including post-pandemic inflation and the energy crisis.

I have been clear that local authorities cannot be left to manage this challenge alone. Through my housing emergency action plan, £80 million has been targeted to the local authorities experiencing the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures, supporting the acquisition of homes and helping to reduce the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation such as bed and breakfasts and hotels.

This approach is already delivering results, with both City of Edinburgh and Fife councils giving positive indications they will achieve compliance with the law by March 2027. This must clearly be what we are all working towards.

Whilst these are undoubtedly steps in the right direction, hearing directly from people with lived experience of homelessness about the instability, trauma and barriers they face has convinced me that incremental change will not be enough. To successfully tackle the housing emergency, we must be prepared to take brave, bold action and change our approach.

That is why we intend to establish a new national housing agency providing simplicity, scale and speed in the delivery of the homes Scotland needs. This will help ensure that increased investment delivers the homes needed to prevent and end homelessness.

By accelerating the supply of affordable and social housing, unlocking stalled sites, and addressing barriers to delivery, it will create more settled housing options – helping to prevent the harm of homelessness, shorten time spent in temporary accommodation, and ease pressure on local authority homelessness services across Scotland.

Increasing the supply of homes, while essential, is only part of the solution. To successfully end homelessness, we must focus on prevention as well as provision, because preventing homelessness protects dignity, reduces inequality and unlocks opportunity.

In 2026-27 we are making a record £106 million available to local authorities to spend on Discretionary Housing Payments to help struggling households stay in their homes and prevent homelessness. This includes £83 million to ensure no one in Scotland pays the UK Government’s Bedroom Tax.

The ‘Ask and Act’ duties in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 place early intervention at the heart of our approach and will make preventing homelessness a shared responsibility across public services. To support this shift and to supplement funding for prevention activity included in the local government settlement, we provided £4 million this year to help non-housing services prepare for the new duties, alongside a further £4 million in 2026-27 for a range of homelessness prevention and response initiatives.

We will continue to report annually to Parliament on progress against the actions set out in our Ending Homelessness Together strategy, ensuring transparency and accountability, as we seek to deliver the systemic change needed to achieve real, measurable outcomes on the ground.

Ending homelessness is both a moral imperative and a measure of who we are as a nation, and I am determined to continue to drive the momentum needed to make that ambition a reality.

Welcome to More Homes Scotland:Bringing Housing Delivery Under One Roof

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The Scottish Government has announced More Homes Scotland – a new national executive agency to speed up and maximise affordable housing delivery across Scotland.

Key details:

  • Focus: in three parts – simplicity (reducing duplication and inefficiencies), scale (delivering large projects, including rural and island needs), and speed (unlocking stalled sites, land, infrastructure and collaboration with the Scottish National Investment Bank to leverage private finance).
  • Timeline: co-design phase commencing now; starts operating 2027-28; fully functional in 2028-29 (subject to the May 2026 election outcome). 
  • Resources: backed by record funding of up to £4.9 billon over four years to deliver 36,000 affordable homes.

This is a welcome move that shows the Scottish Government means business on tackling a housing emergency decades in the making – by embedding safe and settled homes as a national infrastructure goal, as well as a fundamental right for everyone.

That focus is needed. Stagnation in housebuilding has driven rising homelessness, and a dedicated executive agency offers real potential to break through long-standing blockages in planning, finance, land and skills. By maximising public investment, it can build sector confidence, attract additional private funding, and help deliver at the scale we urgently need.

The commitment to investment in housing in last week’s budget, while record-breaking, falls short of independent research showing we need at least 15,693 affordable homes delivered every year to meaningfully address homelessness and reduce the backlog affecting tens of thousands of households. More Homes Scotland can provide the strategic and delivery mechanism to get us closer to closing that gap, and its ability to do so will be a key measure of success.

In shaping this new agency, two key lessons stand out: the need for a relentless focus on measurable outcomes to ensure real, sustained impact beyond initial outputs; and ensuring root causes of housing inequality – such as poverty and systemic inequalities – underpin the co-design phase, strategic decisions and resource allocation from the outset. By embedding these lessons, we can help create a people-first agency that drives the structural change needed to chart our way out of the housing emergency.

At Homeless Network Scotland, we’re ready to harness the insights of the third sector and people who’ve been through homelessness to help make that happen.

Budget Round-up: Advances in housing supply – but the gap to ending homelessness persists

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The final Scottish Budget before the Holyrood election is a step in the right direction on housing and homelessness. But amid a continuing emergency that is causing real harm to people across Scotland, the next Scottish Government must go further to reverse chronic underfunding that is leaving thousands of people without a home.

The Budget confirms £4.1billion in public funding to deliver 36,000 affordable homes over the next four years, including 25,200 for social rent. This includes a welcome 21% increase on the original budget for 2026-27 – but falls short when independent research shows we need at least 15,693 affordable homes delivered every year to address homelessness.

A multi-year approach with funding rising year-on-year provides more certainty to attract investment and deliver on commitments. But this platform can do more than offer stability, important though that is – it can serve as a launchpad to significantly ramp up delivery towards that target.

Today, more than 17,240 households are trapped in temporary accommodation, including 10,180 children, who are waiting on average 238 days for a settled home. Without aiming higher, the human cost of this situation will rise alongside the eye-watering financial cost.

Prevention is key, alongside bricks and mortar. The Scottish Spending Review sets out a focus on preventative approaches across budgets and reform to join-up services. These commitments echo what the Everyone Home collective and All in for Change are calling for in their Housing Justice manifesto.

Targeted funding for Ask and Act

We urge the Scottish Government to prioritise implementation of a coherent and effective homelessness prevention system – including targeted resourcing now to lay the essential groundwork for the new Ask and Act homelessness prevention duties, so they work as intended when enacted in future years

The same goes for reforming public services. Those hit hardest by the housing emergency often face overlapping crises, yet services are built to tackle just one issue at a time.  Fixing that will prevent the worst harm to those worst off and save money for the public purse.

These are laudable policies that promise meaningful change. They must not be allowed to fall by the wayside with a change of administration – and the same goes for spending commitments on homelessness services and support, including Housing First.

On 7 May, we will cast our votes for the next Scottish Government. Whoever takes the reins needs to know that taking decisive action commensurate with the scale of the task to make sure everyone has a home may not be easy, but it is achievable and it is worth it – for people, communities and wider society.

As the Finance Secretary said when delivering her Budget:  “The choices we are able to take, in this, our national parliament, make a real difference for the people we serve.”

Our questions of the Finance Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Housing are:

  1. What specific additional actions and updates will be allocated in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan and Housing to 2040 action plan to ensure the affordable housing commitment translates into enough social rented homes to prevent and end homelessness?
  2. How will the Ending Homelessness Together Fund be monitored to ensure it delivers systemic change, including targeted resourcing to lay the essential groundwork for the ‘Ask and Act’ duties with non-housing services?
  3. How will the Scottish Government work with local authorities and providers to reduce the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation, including setting clear expectations and timelines?

Homelessness and housing in the Budget at a glance:

  • £4.9billion investment in affordable homes over the next four years, including £4.1bn public sector funding, to support delivery of 36,000 affordable homes and wider all-tenure ambition. 

For 2026-27:

  • Continued funding of Discretionary Housing Payments to mitigate the UK bedroom tax, benefit cap and welfare shortfalls including the freeze in Local Housing Allowance rates.
  • £1.3million towards Scottish Empty Homes Partnership to expand the core service and fund new small‑scale projects.
  • £11.5million for the multi‑year ending homelessness together fund, for measures including Rapid Rehousing transition and the Fund to Leave, which supports women and children affected by domestic abuse.
  • £49million for Housing Support, Fuel Poverty and Housing Quality. 
  • Anti-poverty measures including a boost in weekly Scottish child payment to £40 for households with a baby under the age of one.

Find the full Budget and spending plans here: https://www.gov.scot/budget

Housing emergency risks return of communal night shelters, research finds

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People facing homelessness in Scotland are once again at risk of trauma and harm as the housing emergency threatens the return of old-style communal night shelters, experts fear.

The warning, echoed by people with lived experience of using shelters, comes as groundbreaking research from Heriot-Watt University details how Scotland ended use of ‘shared air’ shelters from 2020-2024, following decades of work by the third sector and local and national government.

The University’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) sets out evidence of the serious impact communal shelters can have on people, including exposure to infectious disease and violence, and raises concerns the housing crisis could see more shelters open to fill gaps in emergency accommodation. But the research also shows a return to responses that prioritise good support and access to housing is achievable.

The peer-reviewed research, published in the International Journal on Homelessness, provides the first detailed analysis of how Scotland closed its emergency shelters during the pandemic and maintained a shelter-free response from 2020 to 2024.

Scotland’s approach included rapidly relocating residents to single-room accommodation and establishing Welcome Centres as multi-agency triage hubs. Within eight months, this emergency measure had evolved into formal Scottish Government policy to end dormitory-style shelter provision permanently. This was enabled by policy building blocks developed over previous decades, including strong legal rights to housing, a substantial social housing sector and robust welfare protections.

These foundations resulted in Scotland having comparatively low levels of rough sleeping, 40% lower than England, making shelter closure more achievable than in nations with higher rough sleeping rates.

The research also documents the extensive evidence of the harm caused by emergency shelters while demonstrating there is no evidence that shelters provide a pathway to permanent housing.

Shelters can result in:

  • Some people choosing to sleep rough and take other potentially life-threatening risks rather than use shelters
  • Worse health outcomes than receiving no support at all
  • Violence, infectious disease and drug-related harms from communal living
  • Rules and curfews that limit people’s freedom, high stress, stigmatisation and the feeling of being treated like a child
  • Damaged relationships with friends, family and children
  • People dealing with serious challenges trapped in cycles without their needs being met

Lived experience views

Suzanne, who has experienced homelessness and researched other people’s experiences of using services, said: “With the women it is all about safety. A lot of guys didn’t feel safe but what really came across was that women would rather sleep in the street or hook up with a guy to get away from having to go to the shelter.

“If the only alternative is an unregulated shelter, women would swerve towards going somewhere safe instead. A lot of people feel unsafe when they go into a shelter and can be triggered by the environment, causing them trauma and bringing up past trauma. Shelters are a sticking plaster. Until we come up with a solution there’s still a demand for them. We need an alternative.”

James, who also experienced homelessness, said: “My experience of night shelters was after presenting in Edinburgh. I was handed a list of churches where I could sleep on the floor. I had all my stuff with me, I was pointed to a yoga mat and given an itchy blanket.

“I lay uncomfortably cuddled into my backpack as I was worried it would be stolen when I was asleep. I pretty quickly realised many people were injecting legal highs. At some point during the night there was a queue for the toilet.

“People were sharing injecting equipment, and I later learned that at this point there was an HIV outbreak. This was not communicated and presented a serious risk to those arriving who were already struggling and vulnerable. Some of the community I met in that shelter were later sleeping in a mausoleum in a graveyard rather than using shelter accommodation.”

Threats to a shelter-free approach

Critically, the research identifies the serious threats to maintaining Scotland’s shelter-free approach, including:

  • Rising demand pressures: Homelessness applications increased by 10% in a single year (2021/22-2022/23), temporary accommodation use rose 29% in three years, and the Scottish Parliament declared a national housing emergency in May 2024.
  • During winter 2023/24, Glasgow’s Welcome Centre experienced surges in demand that strained resources.
  • Barriers for people with No Recourse to Public Funds: Current restrictions mean this group can only access emergency accommodation for limited periods, pushing vulnerable people towards rough sleeping or creating pressure for shelter provision.
  • Community pressure: In January 2024, a volunteer-run shelter opened in Glasgow despite concerns from people with lived experience about their safety as well as health risks and increased anti-social behaviour in the vicinity.

Professor Beth Watts-Cobbe, lead author from Heriot-Watt University’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research, said: “Our research demonstrates that ending shelter use is achievable, as Scotland proved between 2020 and 2024. This was possible because of policy foundations built over decades combined with rapid action during the pandemic to relocate shelter residents to single-room accommodation.

“However, this progress is now under serious threat from rising demand, inadequate provision for people with No Recourse to Public Funds, and community pressure to reopen dormitory-style shelters. The evidence is clear that shelters perpetuate harms among exceptionally disadvantaged people and fail to provide pathways to sustainable housing. Returning to dormitory-style provision would represent a significant failure to minimise housing-related harms to those who are most in need of support.

“The key lesson from Scotland’s experience is that shelter-free responses are possible but require both the right policy foundations and sustained commitment to maintain them. Other jurisdictions can learn from Scotland’s approach but must recognise that creating these enabling conditions takes deliberate policy choices and adequate resourcing over time.”

The research acknowledges the important role of the Everyone Home Collective, convened by Homeless Network Scotland, in building cross-sector agreement around a shelter-free vision. Their Welcome Centre approach means providing rapid access to single-room accommodation.

We know the solutions

Maggie Brünjes, chief executive of Homeless Network Scotland, said: “For too long, the public image of homelessness has been stuck in an outdated stereotype of night shelters – basic, dormitory-style spaces congregating people in crisis, often accepted as inevitable and ‘good enough’ for those at the hardest edges of society.

“This critical new research highlights Scotland’s remarkable achievement in maintaining a shelter-free response from 2020 to 2024, decisively shifting to self-contained temporary accommodation and settled housing in the community. This hard-won progress – driven by leadership from Glasgow and Edinburgh local authorities, adaptive charities that modernised their services and strong Scottish Government policy – now risks reversal amid surging demand and the national housing emergency.

“People with first-hand experience, academics and charities have long made the case that communal shelters cause unnecessary harm and fear. The joint manifesto from the Everyone Home collective and All in For Change unites these interests ahead of the 2026 election, spelling out the solutions that need scaled for a Scotland where everyone has a home. This research shows that real progress is possible – but only through sustained investment and political commitment.”

The research also notes how both Bethany Christian Trust in Edinburgh and Glasgow City Mission, faith-based organisations that previously operated shelters, played important roles in relocating residents during the pandemic and have become providers of the alternative Welcome Centre model.

The researchers now urge policy makers to:

  • Maintain commitment to avoiding dormitory-style emergency provision, recognising that returns to this model represent failures to minimise housing-related harms
  • Address rising demand pressures through increased social housing supply, enhanced homelessness prevention, and adequate resourcing of alternative provision
  • Remove barriers preventing people with No Recourse to Public Funds from accessing emergency accommodation beyond single nights, recognising that current restrictions push vulnerable people towards rough sleeping
  • Invest in and expand alternatives to shelters including single-room accommodation to provide access to mainstream housing with support
  • Recognise that maintaining the policy foundations that have enabled a shelter-free Scotland to be maintained

The research emphasises that Scotland’s experience provides important lessons for homelessness policy globally, particularly in the Global North, demonstrating that reliance on harmful dormitory-style shelters is neither inevitable nor necessary. However, it acknowledges that Scotland’s achievement was enabled by comparatively low rough sleeping levels and specific policy foundations developed over decades.

Read the full paper

Scottish Budget: Only investment will turn Scottish housing rights into housing reality

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Scotland has some of the strongest homelessness rights in the world, but those rights are being fatally undermined by chronic underfunding and a persistent failure to deliver social homes at the scale required. Legislation cannot house people. Only investment can do that – and the forthcoming Scottish budget is an opportunity to make that happen.

Today, more than 17,240 households are trapped in temporary accommodation, including 10,180 children, who are waiting on average 238 days for a settled home.

Behind those figures sit the realities that shape lives for decades: disrupted education, worsening health, exhausted parents and children denied the stability every one of them deserves.

These are not inevitable outcomes. They are the consequence of political choices that the Scottish government now has the power to change.

The Everyone Home Collective and All in for Change organisations have set out an election manifesto grounded in lived experience, frontline expertise and rigorous evidence: Housing Justice: scaling solutions for a Scotland where everyone has a home. Its message for the Scottish budget is clear.

Scotland needs a Big Build. We need at least 15,693 new social homes every year of the next parliament, backed by £8.8 billion of capital investment, according to independent research commissioned by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, CIH Scotland and Shelter Scotland.

Some in Holyrood claim this scale isn’t logistically possible. We disagree. Yes, challenges exist – but they’re not fixed. Today’s delivery rates – more than 7,000 affordable homes last year – are held back by  limited funding and short-term priorities.

Put the full investment on the table with genuine urgency and the building industry, housing associations, planners and supply chains will step up. We’ve seen it before: when Scotland commits with ambition and resources, capacity grows to meet the moment.

This scale is not aspirational. It is the minimum required to reduce the housing need currently affecting 693,000 households, and to relieve pressure on a system spending millions on unsuitable temporary accommodation – hotel and B&B rooms – that leaves individuals and families in limbo. Without a step-change in housing supply, homelessness will continue to rise no matter how well-intentioned our policies are.

But supply is only part of the picture. Poverty, inequality and restrictive UK welfare policies remain the strongest and most persistent drivers of homelessness. When incomes fall short of the most basic cost of living and rents soar beyond reach, people fall into crisis long before they cross the threshold of a homelessness service.

Upstream prevention

That is why prevention must move upstream – and the budget must reflect this. Scotland’s new prevention duties offer real potential, but only if services across housing, health, social care, justice and policing are resourced to identify risk early.

Frontline workers are already stretched to breaking point. They cannot compensate indefinitely for failures elsewhere in the system. A budget committed to housing justice must ensure that the burden does not fall on those already doing the heaviest lifting.

Crucially, it must also shield those being hit hardest by the housing emergency: people experiencing deep poverty, discrimination, trauma and gender-based violence. Our manifesto calls for fast-track access to housing and support for people facing systemic disadvantage – a targeted approach backed by evidence, not rhetoric.

It also means confronting an uncomfortable truth: not everyone is at equal risk of homelessness, but the housing emergency now affects people who were previously considered secure. Soaring rents, a shrinking supply of affordable homes and rising living costs are pushing more people into instability.

Housing justice is a simple idea. When everyone has access to a decent home, everyone benefits. Individuals, families, children, communities, society, the economy. It is the foundation on which health improves, education stabilises, inequality narrows and communities thrive.

The January 2026 Scottish budget is a defining moment. If Scotland wants to be credible on homelessness, three decisions are essential.

Firstly, fund the Big Build at scale and across multiple years. Only long-term certainty will allow councils and housing partners to plan and deliver the homes people urgently need.

Secondly, invest in a coherent system of prevention. That means backing ‘Ask and Act’ so it works. This is a new legal duty in Scotland that requires a wide range of services outwith homelessness to ask about someone’s housing situation and, if necessary, take action to help prevent their homelessness. With proper training, delivery resources and joined-up working, Ask and Act can stop homelessness before it starts.

Lastly, spend smart on joined-up support. Those hit hardest by the housing emergency often face overlapping crises like trauma, addiction and mental health problems – yet public services are built to tackle just one issue at a time. Fixing this mismatch will prevent the worst harm to those worst off.

By investing in these priority areas, a Scottish budget with the idea of housing justice as its cornerstone can get us closer to creating a fairer country where everyone has a home.