The new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s commitment to end rough sleeping, backed by new investment, is a positive step. The additional funding that will come to Scotland through Barnett consequentials provides an important opportunity to strengthen efforts to end rough sleeping in Scotland and support more people into safe, secure homes.
We are calling on the Scottish Government to use this extra funding to expand Housing First and ensure more people experiencing the most severe and complex forms of homelessness can access the housing and support they need.
Housing First is one of the most effective and innovative policy interventions of recent times. It provides people with a permanent home alongside flexible, person-centred support. The evidence is clear that this approach works, providing the stability and support required so they can leave homelessness for good and rebuild their lives.
Scotland has long been recognised as a leader in progressive approaches to ending homelessness. But leadership is measured by delivery.
Through the Ending Homelessness Together action plan, the Scottish Government committed to making Housing First the default option for people with multiple and complex needs. Yet access remains far below the level required, with current provision estimated to meet just nine percent of demand.
With rough sleeping continuing to rise, this funding is a chance to turn ambition into action. Expanding Housing First would ensure Scotland continues to lead the way in ending homelessness and delivering on the ambition to end all forms of homelessness.
More than 40 organisations call for intervention within Government’s first 100 days
MORE than 40 leading organisations have today urged the new Scottish Government to put joined up working at the heart of its response to the housing and homelessness emergency.
The Everyone Home Collective has welcomed the First Minister’s commitment to a cross-government approach, saying it presents a genuine opportunity to drive lasting progress on homelessness if backed by decisive action within the Government’s first 100 days.
In its expert advice, Protect, Scale, Shift, the coalition – which brings together frontline services, the national lived experience platform and academic partners – argues that sustained reductions in homelessness will only come through strong joined-up leadership nationally and locally, alongside action to tackle the root causes of poverty and Scotland’s chronic shortage of affordable housing.
The coalition, convened by Homeless Network Scotland, says housing justice must become a central priority for the new administration, with stronger accountability, faster delivery of social housing and better coordination between housing, health, social care and justice services.
The warning comes alongside recent polling commissioned by Everyone Home revealing more than a third (35%) of Scots fear they could lose their home within the next few years, rising sharply to almost half (49%) of all 18 to 24-year-olds.
It also found 61% of people were more likely to vote for a political party in the recent Scottish Parliamentary Election if they prioritised tackling homelessness over the next five years.
Maggie Brünjes, Chief Executive of Homeless Network Scotland said: “We strongly welcome the First Minister’s priority on a joined-up government. Too often, siloed services intensify disadvantage, widen inequality and drive-up public costs.
“By raising the floor for people facing the hardest challenges – with stable housing, adequate incomes and coordinated support – we raise the floor for everyone.
“Resolving record levels of homelessness requires tackling root causes at scale, not short-term fixes, reclassifying cases or gaming definitions to improve headline numbers. We need a binding commitment to sustainable, joined-up solutions.”
Campaigners warn that without a substantial increase in housing supply, wider efforts around homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing will continue to fall short.
As of September 2025, 18,092 households were living in temporary accommodation, including 10,480 children, exposing what campaigners say is a widening gap between Scotland’s homelessness ambitions and the reality facing families.
Ms Brünjes added: “More than 10,000 children growing up without a settled home is not a statistic that can simply be absorbed into the system. It is a warning sign that the current approach is failing too many people, despite Scotland having some of the strongest homelessness rights in the world.
“We are concerned that the enormous Social Justice and Housing portfolio has once again been assigned to a single Cabinet Secretary rather than a dedicated Housing Secretary. While the joined-up ambition is positive, the sheer size of the brief risks weakening focus on the housing and homelessness emergency.”
The Protect, Scale, Shift advice sets out clear priorities across housing supply, prevention, rapid rehousing and joined-up services, including:
Delivery of at least 15,693 new social and affordable homes every year throughout the parliamentary term, backed by clear targets and accountability for the new More Homes Scotland agency.
Stronger homelessness prevention through a public health approach and better alignment across housing, health, social care and justice.
A renewed national commitment to Rapid Rehousing to reduce time spent in temporary accommodation and close the gap between policy ambition and lived reality.
National expansion of Housing First and transformation of supported housing for people with the most complex needs.
Robust cross-Government and cross-portfolio oversight to ensure genuinely joined-up working and accountability.
Ms Brünjes added: “Too much public money is spent responding to crisis after it has already happened. We know what works.
“The challenge now is closing the gap between Scotland’s progressive policies and the reality facing individuals and families. More homes, rapid rehousing and preventative, joined-up services offer the path to better lives and better value for public resources.”
The collective says the newly created More Homes Scotland agency could play a major role in reversing the crisis, but only if ministers attach clear targets and meaningful accountability to its work.
The advice briefing also calls for the return of a cross-ministerial oversight group in Parliament, mirrored by a cross-portfolio structure within Government, to ensure housing policy is properly aligned with wider public services.
Ms Brünjes said: “The next Government has a narrow window to demonstrate it understands the scale of this emergency.
“That means committing to more than 15,000 social and affordable homes each year, giving More Homes Scotland clear responsibilities it can be judged against and making sure housing, health, justice and social care are finally working in unison instead of in isolation.”
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:
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?
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?
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.
We welcome measures announced today by the Cabinet Secretary for Housing to tackle the impact of the housing emergency on people across Scotland.
It is right to focus first on addressing the impact of this solvable emergency on children’s wellbeing and health, on the most disadvantaged and excluded groups in society, and on people who face real peril for want of access to safe accommodation.
And it is right to provide more investment for homes and more acquisitions. Without the right level of spending on these national priorities, homelessness and rough sleeping will only get worse, at great cost to people, communities, and the public finances.
While £4.9billion for affordable housing over the next 4 years is significant – along with a commitment to multi-year funding projections – it falls well short of the £1.64billion annual investment that is needed to bring homes in reach for everyone, according to authoritative research released today by Shelter Scotland, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations.
Rapid Rehousing and Housing First
We know Rapid Rehousing, including Housing First with wraparound support, is the right plan to reduce homelessness. Extending Rapid Rehousing Transition funding of £8million into 2026/27 will support councils to implement their Rapid Rehousing plans and provide the right housing options for everyone in their community.
A £1million uplift in Housing First funding this year can keep more people in tenancies, breaking the cycle of repeat homelessness and saving money for services people rely on when they become homeless, including the NHS, mental health, and justice.
Providing £3million for social landlords to acquire properties to deliver Housing First in targeted locations is a further positive step in scaling up Housing First, which currently meets just 9% of projected demand – a figure that has not changed from last year.
The next step must be to introduce longer-term funding arrangements and increase funding so Housing First can help more people. Local authorities and support providers are crying out for the certainty that multi-year settlements bring, for the benefit of tenants and frontline workers as well as their own vital operations.
Temporary accommodation
People who experience homelessness must have access to the same range of housing options as other members of the public. For some people, the private rented sector offers the right choice, in the right place at the right time. For that reason, investing up to £2million through the Scottish Government’s Discretionary Housing Payments scheme to support households in temporary accommodation to find settled homes in the private rented sector is also to be welcomed.
Increasing supply of good quality temporary accommodation through private sector leasing will, we hope, divert more people away from unsuitable and unsafe conditions – while also squeezing out providers who make millions by providing squalid accommodation.
The Scottish Government can go further by creating a challenge fund to supply more good quality temporary accommodation delivered by the third sector and social landlords. Increasing supply of good quality temporary accommodation will be crucial, given the measures announced today to proactively ‘flip’ good quality temporary accommodation occupied by families with children into settled homes wherever possible. A positive measure mustn’t have a negative knock-on effect.
No rollback on rights
The Cabinet Secretary has today shown boldness and a welcome sense of urgency with her action plan. We appreciate her strong commitment to preserving existing housing rights, voiced in the chamber, and her demand that the Home Office properly fund and organise its asylum processes.
It is unrealistic to demand that the Cabinet Secretary solve the housing emergency in the remaining nine months of this parliament. But it is crucial that this momentum continues after the election in May. The next Scottish Government must build on this action, not least by stretching to meet the true cost of building the social and affordable homes we need.
Alongside that, the next government must also ensure the prevention measures in the Housing Bill are properly implemented – because the best way to tackle homelessness is by preventing it happening as early as possible.
Members of the Scottish Parliament are voting on the Housing Bill as it comes to the end of Stage One, where the general principles of the legislation are debated and then voted on.Homeless Network Scotland is one of 23 organisations supporting this briefing produced by Crisis Scotland ahead of the debate to show why MSPs must back this legislation for the good of everyone in Scotland.
Context: Prevention measures
Part 5 of the Housing Bill contains homelessness prevention measures which will help end the housing emergency in Scotland.
The best way to end homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place. The measures in Part 5 of the Housing Bill will make a significant impact on the ability to prevent homelessness in Scotland, stemming the flow of people into the system and thereby reducing pressure on homelessness services. Most importantly it will preventthe trauma, indignity and stigma of homelessness for individuals affected.
Part 5 is the result of many years of work and consultation by independent expert groups and was strongly supported by respondents to the Government / COSLA consultation in 2021. It intersects with approaches to tackling poverty, reducing pressure on acute NHS services, and assistance for individuals with complex support needs.
We strongly urge all MSPs to show support for the prevention principles of the Housing (Scotland) Bill at the Stage 1 debate and show that there is cross party support for the homeless prevention measures contained within it. It is important to recognise positive work that has led us to this point.
We recognise that there are sections of Part 5 of the Bill that could be improved, and we will be working with MSPs across all parties, and with Scottish Government, at Stage 2 and beyond to do this, including gaining further clarity on the Government’s intentions for implementation.
Context: Expert development and consultation on preventing homelessness
Stable housing is one of the most fundamental of human needs. The Housing Bill contains vital measures to prevent homelessness and stabilise people’s housing situations (Part 5). These measures are the result of many years of work and consultation through a number of independent expert working groups, going back to the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group in 2017-2018, and the Homeless Prevention Review Group between 2019-2021. This group conducted detailed stakeholder engagement with over 100 organisations, and was supported by the Prevention Commission, a group of people with lived and frontline experience of homelessness, to develop the proposals for homelessness prevention duties.
Scottish Government and COSLA consulted on these proposals in 2021, and they received widespread support for the package of proposals, which were described as comprehensive, transformational and welcome. Supporters recognised the importance of early intervention and enabling a joined-up approach to prevention. Respondents believed the proposals would strengthen existing practice, improve consistency, positively impact those at greater risk of homelessness, and noted the potential long-term savings or benefits to services which could result from a focus on prevention.” (p3)
Respondents to the consultation were described as “individuals and stakeholders with detailed knowledge”, and on average 90% agreed with the questions posed in the consultation, including 87% supporting an extended homelessness prevention duty, and 93% supporting greater responsibilities on other public bodies to act to prevent homelessness.
Currently the legal homelessness framework focuses on acting when a homelessness crisis takes place. The SPICE briefing on the Bill highlights the imbalance between the statutory homelessness support and the non-statutory homelessness prevention approaches, which sometimes disincentivises an early intervention approach. Other research demonstrates how statutory homelessness services often “carry the can” for failures to intervene by other services, particularly for people experiencing severe and multiple disadvantages.
Work over the past seven years demonstrates that stronger duties on local authorities and other public bodies to prevent homelessness are needed to clarify the law, incentivise an earlier intervention approach and ensure bodies co-operate so that people don’t reach crisis point in their housing.
Moreover, the measures in the Bill echo successful legal provisions in Wales (2014) and England (2018) to prevent homelessness and develop them further by widening the scope beyond homelessness services to advance us towards a world-leading approach to joining up public services to improve people’s housing stability. Action is now being taken in Wales to go further on prevention and legislate for similar duties as outlined in Part 5 of the Housing (Scotland) Bill.
If implemented effectively, we believe these provisions will reduce the number of households who become homeless, as well as the associated costs of trauma and indignity to individuals affected. The measures will also help tackle poverty, reduce housing-related health problems, demand for acute NHS support, and reoffending rates, and they will allow for more effective holistic support for people with multiple needs and victim-survivors of domestic abuse.
Committee scrutiny of the measures in Part 5 of the Bill
The Social Justice and Social Security Committee scrutinised this part of the legislation and expressed its support for the fundamental aims of Part 5 of the Bill. The Committee highlight “broad support for the Bill’s homelessness prevention provisions amongst the witnesses the Committee took evidence from”, while also noting concerns about how these will be operationalised.
The Committee wrote “if the Bill is implemented, and it works as envisaged, this should help to alleviate some of the pressure currently being experienced in the homelessness system, including the high number of children living in temporary accommodation… the legislation could help embed… best practice” (p9)
We urge MSPs to support the Bill at this stage so that these important provisions can move forward for further scrutiny at Stage 2 of the parliamentary process.
Next steps
Should the Bill pass Stage 1, we will be working with MSPs and the Scottish Government at Stage 2 to ensure that the provisions in the Bill are as ambitious and effective as possible.
Areas we believe may need further attention at Stage 2 include:
A clearer definition of ‘threatened with homelessness’ relating to the ending of tenancies and leaving institutions (while not restricting the overall definition)
Ensure prevention support is available to people at risk of homelessness, no matter the reason (intentionality)
Ensure the Local Authority Housing Options offer is suitable for the household’s needs so that it effectively minimises future risk of homelessness
Clarify what the duty of ‘reasonable steps’ that Local Authorities must take to prevent homelessness entails, including when this duty ends – so people do not get trapped in an endless cycle of ‘help’ that isn’t working
More detail on the needs assessment process and resulting support plan produced – who is responsible for conducting this and how will the information be made available -whether a Personal Support Plan should be included in legislation.
Clarify what the Act duty on different relevant bodies entails, including co-ordination of support
Ensure there is a right to review the various stages of support, to ensure accountability and access to meaningful help.
Extend the definition of relevant bodies to include other bodies such as Social Security Scotland and explore what can be done with reserved bodies. Provide clarity and commitments on commencement timescales and implementation plans, including associated costs and expected savings.
Many of the above are in line with the areas identified by the Social Justice and Social Security Committee in their report on Part 5 of the Bill.
Alongside the passage of the Bill, we are working with Scottish Government, local authorities and other partners to begin to develop thinking on what implementation plans should consist of, especially in relation to what a ‘phase approach’ to delivery could mean. There is much good practice already happening around Scotland, as demonstrated in the 75 ways to prevent homelessness publication. We recommend existing best practice is scaled up, alongside the introduction of a Test-and-Learn Initiative to explore aspects of the proposed legislation that are unknown. Some of the findings could be embedded into regulation at a future date, including details of what Act would mean for different public bodies.
We are calling for a funding commitment in the upcoming Budget, to facilitate the scaling up of prevention best practice across Scotland, and to fund a Test and Learn Initiative for answering unknown aspects of the proposed legislation. Both programmes will help pave the way for the introduction of the legislation, but they will also make a positive impact to the national housing emergency by stemming the flow of people into the existing system.
Furthermore, we recommend the establishment of a Prevention Delivery Unit, tasked with co-ordinating work across government to successfully deliver the prevention legislation, and more broadly transition the existing homeless system to one that is designed around prevention and early action.
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