Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 12 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the annual report of the Scottish Housing Regulator, which has stated that three local authorities are impacted by a systemic failure of their homelessness services, and a further eight are at heightened risk of such failure.
The Scottish Government’s housing emergency action plan published on 2 September sets out a suite of actions to help address the strategic challenges in providing homelessness services identified by the Scottish Housing Regulator. The plan commits to up to £4.9 billion over the next four years for the delivery of affordable and social homes. It ensures that £808 million will be available for affordable homes in Scotland this year, which includes an acquisition fund of £80 million targeted to the local authorities with the most sustained temporary accommodation pressures.
This fund will help to replenish temporary accommodation stock that has been converted to permanent homes. We are also funding a pilot private sector leasing scheme to reduce the use of unsuitable temporary accommodation, which will support local authorities to comply with their statutory homelessness duties.
I met with the Scottish Housing Regulator recently in October and attended their Board meeting on 5 November. We will continue to engage regularly with both local authorities and the Scottish Housing Regulator to support the local authorities most impacted in the challenges they face in providing homelessness services.