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Building a Better Scotland
SOCIAL JUSTICE
To make Scotland a good place to live in for everyone
Social justice is an investment in the people of Scotland and is the foundation of our prosperity. We are delivering social justice by improving public services for all, by tackling the social, educational and economic barriers that create inequality and by working to end child poverty and discrimination. We are investing to make every community a safe, attractive place to live, where everyone has the opportunity to make the most of their potential.
Social justice is delivered both through the Social Justice Portfolio and through the activities of other portfolios set out elsewhere in this document. The Social Justice Minister has the key role in working across the Executive to ensure that all we are doing supports our commitment to closing the opportunity gap, both for deprived areas and disadvantaged groups, and our commitment to mainstream equality across the Scottish Executive and the public sector in Scotland.
Using the social justice budget we are regenerating our most deprived communities, for example, by investing in our housing infrastructure. The Glasgow Stock Transfer will transform the lives of thousands of families in Glasgow. Over the next four years we will support further transfers to bring the same benefits of a warm, damp-free and structurally sound home to an additional 70,000 households. At the same time we will increase the housing supply by funding 18,000 new and improved homes for rent and low-cost home ownership and in doing this support sustainable development and offer new opportunities for local employment.
We are improving local services to address the problems of anti-social behaviour, youth crime and the poor quality of the environment through policies that we know make a difference, such as neighbourhood management, wardens and other local initiatives. In taking these forward we are working with communities by putting community engagement at the heart of the regeneration and community planning processes and by delivering services in partnership with other organisations and sectors, including the voluntary sector.
We are also working to tackle the barriers people face that often lead to poverty and inequality. We will work to develop integrated packages of employment support, including childcare, to enable more people to access and maintain employment and so escape poverty for themselves and their families. We will also continue to work to address the problems of financial exclusion.
OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS
OBJECTIVE 1
Delivering good quality, sustainable and affordable housing for everyone |
Target | 1 | By 2006, increase the supply and quality of Scotland's housing stock by approving 18,000 new and improved homes for social rent and low-cost home ownership. |
Target | 2 | By 2006 reduce the number of houses with poor energy efficiency by 20%. |
OBJECTIVE 2
Regenerating our communities |
Target | 3 | We will demonstrate that we are closing the opportunity gap for disadvantaged communities in respect of key outcomes for education, health, justice, transport, housing and jobs.* |
Target | 4 | By 2006, return to productive use (i.e. for housing, economic or leisure purposes) an additional 100 hectares of vacant or derelict land. |
Target | 5 | By 2006, support local authorities to develop or implement proposals for transferring 70,000 houses to community ownership, subject to the wishes of councils and tenants. |
OBJECTIVE 3
Tackling homelessness and providing good quality housing management and support services |
Target | 6 | By 2006, substantially reduce the number of households becoming homeless more than once in a year. |
OBJECTIVE 4
Ending fuel poverty by 2016 |
Target | 7 | All private sector houses occupied by elderly people and all housing associations and local authority houses to have central heating by 2006. |
Target | 8 | By 2006 reduce by 30% the number of households in fuel poverty. |
OBJECTIVE 5
Promoting equal opportunities and active citizenship |
Target | 9 | Increase the opportunities for people to get involved in volunteering and promote equality mainstreaming within the Scottish Executive and across the public sector. |
* We will measure whether we are closing the opportunity gap using a series of indicators based on portfolio targets. In each case, we will compare the outcome in the most disadvantaged areas with the national average to establish the extent of the gap and measure change over time. The baseline year will be 2003-04 and the indicators that we intend to use are:
Education | Children achieving at least basic educational qualifications. |
Health | Death from coronary heart disease in people under 75. |
Mothers who smoke during pregnancy. |
Justice | Levels of house-breaking. |
Transport | Serious and fatal road accidents involving children. |
Access to a local bus service. |
Housing | Homes with poor energy efficiency. |
Jobs | Unemployment rates. |
16-19 year olds who are not in education, training or employment. |
Children in workless households. |
What we will do
We want to improve the lives of Scotland's people by promoting sustainable homes and communities and tackling inequality, poverty and injustice. Over the Spending Review period we will:
- invest 238/248/248 million through the Communities Scotland development programme to fund improvement or replacement of poor housing stock and to provide access to decent and affordable housing for homeless people and those on low to moderate incomes;
- continue to provide 47.5/47.5/47.5 million to support the Central Heating Programme and the Warm Deal so that we can improve domestic energy efficiency and end fuel poverty in Scotland and spend a further 0/5/5 million on central heating targeted on the over 80s to improve a further 4,000 homes by 2006;
- invest in stock transfers by spending 87/107/127 million to improve the quality of housing in Scotland so that a further 70,000 households are able to live in a warm, damp-free and structurally sound home;
- invest 5/15/15 million to support the provision of alternative accommodation and support services to replace Glasgow's outdated homeless hostels, with further investment of 2/5/5 million being made from the health budget;
- continue to deliver area-based regeneration by spending 83/83/83 million through the Social Inclusion Partnership programme and 40/40/40 million through the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund (which is paid for through the Local Government budget);
- work to integrate these area-based programmes with the developing community planning process to embed regeneration activity into local activity;
- tackle anti-social behaviour by investing 0/15/15 million in neighbourhood wardens, support schemes and other local initiatives;
- fund childcare provision in disadvantaged areas by providing 0/10/10 million to help close the employment opportunity gap;
- continue to work with the voluntary sector and volunteering organisations to increase their ability to deliver high quality services to those who need them most;
- invest 0/8/12 million to accelerate the reclamation of vacant and derelict land in Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and Dundee; and
- increase awareness of inequality through campaigns such as the Close the Gap initiative on equal pay for men and women.
Spending Plans
m | 2002-03
Plans | 2003-04
New Plans | 2004-05
New Plans | 2005-06
New Plans |
Delivering Good Quality and Affordable Housing 1 | 466 | 464 | 484 | 484 |
Regenerate our Communities | 187 | 198 | 242 | 266 |
Providing the Services and Support that People Need | 23 | 29 | 24 | 24 |
Tackling Fuel Poverty | 38 | 48 | 53 | 53 |
Tackling Homelessness | 31 | 37 | 45 | 45 |
Promoting a Fairer Society | 19 | 35 | 45 | 45 |
Scottish Homes | 26 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
Housing Support Grant | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Total | 800 | 839 | 921 | 945 |
Scotland's Cities
Cities are central to the quality of life and the well-being of Scotland. We are committed to ensuring that our cities are able to exploit to the full their economic potential, and that the benefits of their increased prosperity are shared with the rest of Scotland. Over the last year, we have been reviewing the economic, social and environmental prospects of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. The review, which will be published next month, has highlighted that: - our cities are of central importance to the achievement of our ambitions for Scotland;
- the attractiveness of our cities as places to live, learn, work and visit are crucial to their economic and social prospects;
- rapid growth - for example in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Inverness - needs careful management to maximise the benefits of cities' success; and
- some difficult, long-term problems remain - especially in Glasgow and Dundee.
Our spending plans for the next three years include a range of initiatives of particular significance for Scotland's cities and their wider city regions: - investment in the infrastructure required to support successful and dynamic city regions (details to follow in the Cities Review report);
- resources to improve quality of life, helping to make all our communities better places to live, by addressing the problems that matter locally;
- additional funding to progress our 10 national transport priorities with particular emphasis on the transport needs of metropolitan areas;
- increased resources to tackle the economic, social and environmental blight of vacant and derelict land in those parts of Scotland with the most extensive inheritance of such land - Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and Dundee;
- progressing further transfers of council housing to community ownership, building on the successful ballot in Glasgow;
- more money for innovation and science, including strengthening research capacity in our universities;
- addressing the skills gap in our cities through increased support for lifelong learning in college and in the workplace; and
- delivering a major events strategy to exploit the potential of Scotland as a location for high profile "must see" sporting and cultural events.
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