Category: News

The Scottish Housing Regulator has published the findings of its thematic review of council homelessness services. Homelessness services in Scotland: A thematic review – February 2023 | Scottish Housing Regulator.  

While some councils have had success moving towards an approach with rapid rehousing at the centre, others are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the challenges they face, with evidence of increasing breaches of statutory duties around the provision of temporary accommodation. The three major challenges highlighted are: 

• Dealing with significant numbers of people in temporary accommodation. 
• Maintaining a sufficient supply of temporary accommodation. 
• Ensuring access to the number of permanent homes needed. 

In February, Councillor Jane Meagher chaired the first meeting of a new Homelessness Task Force appointed by the City of Edinburgh Council’s Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee – see the committee report here.  The remit of the group is to build on existing prevention work, reduce the number of people rough sleeping, accessing temporary accommodation and living in insecure accommodation.

To increase the supply of quality council led temporary accommodation provision, reducing the reliance on bed and breakfast. And to ensure that appropriate support is available for all people who require it.  A very informative presentation was delivered outlining the current context of Edinburgh’s affordable housing programme, an increasing population and the local housing pressures. A copy of the slides are available here.  

The housing regulator’s conclusions match the same range of issues raised by the Everyone Home collective. While some councils have had success in moving toward a Rapid Rehousing approach, others are contending with not enough homes and too many people in temporary accommodation. Read the Regulator’s thematic inquiry report on homelessness services in Scotland.

In January, Patrick Harvie MSP set out to Parliament the Scottish Government’s proposals for the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 beyond 31 March. Subject to the approval of Parliament, changes to the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Act will mean that from 1 April 2023:

• if landlords choose to increase private rents, they will be capped at 3%;
• the safeguard for private landlords will be amended, allowing them to apply for increases of up to 6% to help cover certain increases in costs in defined and limited circumstances;
• enforcement of evictions will continue to be prevented for all tenants except in a number of specified circumstances;
• increased damages for unlawful evictions of up to 36 months’ worth of rent will continue to be applicable;
• the rent cap for social sector accommodation will be expired, following a voluntary agreement being reached on an agreed approach to rent setting for 2023/24 that ensures that rents remain affordable but still support continued investment in the sector;
• the rent cap for student accommodation will be suspended, recognising its limited impact on annual rents set based on an academic year.

These temporary measures are intended to be extended to 30 September, provided they remain necessary, with the option to extend for another six-month period if required. As announced in December 2022, the social sector rent freeze is being replaced with agreements from landlords to keep any rent increase for 2023-24 well below inflation. The first report on the implementation of the legislation, covering the period 28 October to 31 December 2022, was also published in January. Read it here.