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FOREWORD
Our wellbeing, as individuals and families and as a society, depends heavily on our ability to find a decent house that we can afford in a place where we want to live.
Far too many people in Scotland are unable to satisfy this basic aspiration. For some, this means being unable to become home owners. For others, it means living in houses that do not meet their needs, or in neighbourhoods that do not allow them to take advantage of opportunities in life - for work, education, leisure - that most of us take for granted. And for others again, it means failing to find any satisfactory form of settled accommodation.
This state of affairs is at odds with our vision of a country where sustainable growth offers opportunities for everyone to flourish. Indeed, it puts that growth at risk by obstructing labour mobility. It is at odds too with the commitment that we have made as a country to tackle homelessness. As Scotland's Government, we are determined to end it by creating a housing system that meets communities' needs for good quality, energy efficient houses that people can afford.
In this discussion document, we describe our vision of a housing system that delivers more houses: which meets higher environmental standards; offers more choice of housing that is affordable; contributes to the creation of sustainable mixed communities, and achieves better value for public expenditure.
At the heart of the document is our belief that we must and can improve the supply of all types of new housing. For some time past, we have built 25,000 houses a year - significantly less than has been required to moderate growth in house prices. By the middle of the next decade, we want to see that number increase to 35,000 houses a year.
Most of this housing will be for owner-occupation; some of it low cost home ownership that we will support. But, many people need or prefer to rent and the housing system must provide a choice of accommodation that meets their needs.
Improving supply and choice across all tenures will not be easy. It will place demands on developers, private landlords and registered social landlords. Above all, it will require local authorities, as the statutory planning authorities, to deliver the land supply necessary to support more house building. We want to encourage them to discharge this duty by co-operating at a regional level to meet the need for housing across the country as effectively as possible.
We also want to reverse years of decline that local authorities have suffered as social landlords. We believe that they have a vital role to play in working alongside registered social landlords to meet demand for social housing. To support them in the development of this role, we propose offering incentives to them to build new council houses. And we propose safeguarding all new social housing by ending the right to buy for new properties built by local authorities and registered social landlords.
Our proposals are ambitious and radical. They need to be if they are to achieve the improvements in supply, quality and choice of Scotland's housing that we want to see. I hope that they will stimulate a debate about housing and how it should be contributing to the prosperous and sustainable future that Scotland deserves.
NICOLA STURGEON, MSP
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing
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