Listen
Progress on homelessness
29/09/2008
Official figures released today show a reduction in the number of homeless households in Scotland.
There were almost 5 per cent less applications to local authorities under Homeless Persons legislation in 2007-08, compared to the previous year.
The number of repeat applications has fallen to 6.7 per cent within the same 12 months.
Meanwhile almost 80 per cent of households are now entitled to settled accommodation and a greater proportion are now securing it, for example, the number of households which ended up in hostels fell by almost half from 2006-07.
Responding to publication of the Homelessness Statistics, Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell said:
"These figures show that we are making real progress towards our target of providing settled accommodation to all unintentionally homeless people by 2012. Local authorities are to be congratulated for their achievement in reaching this stage.
"Less people are being assessed as homeless, fewer households are being placed in hostels and the number of repeat applications continues to go down.
"However I realise there is still much work to be done to meet this ambitious target, and to find the right solutions for homeless households. We will continue to co-operate with local authorities to achieve this aim.
"This includes offering alternative solutions to prevent homelessness and allowing more flexibility in using the private sector to help offer assistance to homeless households. Meanwhile we are developing guidance on the use of temporary accommodation to improve standards and ensure a more consistent approach.
"We are also working to increase the supply of housing across all tenures to at least 35,000 annually by the middle of the next decade.
"We intend to legislate to remove the Right to Buy for all new build social housing, are encouraging local authorities to begin building again, backed by £25 million, to start the next generation of council housing.
"We have also brought forward up to £100 million of capital spending this year and next to support these efforts and help us to meet the demand for affordable housing in Scotland."
Following on from the publication of the Homelessness Monitoring Group's report - and the findings of the ALACHO/COSLA/Scottish Government 2012 support project earlier this year, the Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed a joint approach to progressing towards the 2012 target. This consists of:
- Maximising access to existing stock, including stock within the private rented sector and housing association stock
- Preventing homelessness where possible, in line with broader principles of early intervention
- A joint and corporate approach to homelessness
- Investing in the right areas