Scottish Churches Housing Action’s campaign for 2004 is Building on the Act. We want to see the Scottish Executive and the churches to work towards an adequate supply of affordable housing for rent. We believe the Executive should set a target to develop at least 10,000 new or improved homes at affordable rents each year for the next five years.

Scottish Churches Housing Action’s campaign for 2004 is Building on the Act. We want to see the Scottish Executive and the churches to work towards an adequate supply of affordable housing for rent. We believe the Executive should set a target to develop at least 10,000 new or improved homes at affordable rents each year for the next five years.

Why the campaign for 10,000 new or improved affordable houses each year?

• With the Homelessness Act 2003, the Parliament and the Executive have established a highly progressive legal framework for responding to homelessness. It provided the basis for the Executive’s ambitious target of a house for all in need by 2012. But affordable housing for rent remains a scarce resource. Unless supply is increased, the new laws will fail to eliminate homelessness
  
• There is a danger that the new attention to dealing with homelessness will increase resentment from ‘ordinary’ people, who rightly see the main route to social housing as through waiting lists.
  Additional housing will serve the needs of all – homeless people and those on the waiting list
  
• The sharpest increase in homelessness presentations is in rural areas where local people face competition for housing through the purchase of second homes, widening commuter distances from towns and cities, and holiday lets.
  Houses for rent will provide local housing for local people – the economy will benefit
  
• The main causes of homelessness lie in wider factors, such as poverty and the economy. Therefore homelessness will not be addressed by homelessness initiatives alone.
  Housebuilding has the double benefit of creating jobs and providing accommodation.
  

The figure of 10,000 is agreed by professional housing organisations as on the one hand, making a real difference to the present situation, and on the other, being achievable. The Scottish Executive already has a target of 6,000 new or improved affordable homes a year, so the gap is one that can be bridged. We do not assume that 10,000 a year will be enough to meet all housing needs. But we believe that unless targets are increased, the Scottish Executive will be unable to achieve its intention of eliminating homelessness in Scotland by 2012. You can help this campaign. Send for an action pack now.