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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our vision for the future of housing in Scotland has four elements:
- An increased supply of housing across all tenures, all of which is delivered on the basis of higher environmental and design standards.
- More choice of housing that those on lower incomes can afford.
- Housing developments that contribute to the creation of sustainable, mixed communities.
- Social housing that provides better value for public expenditure.
We propose to realise that vision by:
- Challenging Scotland's local authorities, developers and builders to increase the rate of new housing supply in Scotland to at least 35,000 a year by the middle of the next decade; and encouraging local authorities to discharge their role in meeting that challenge by co-operating at a regional level to set and meet realistic housing supply targets through their local housing strategies.
- Launching a Scottish Sustainable Communities Initiative to encourage the development of new, sustainable communities of varying sizes that may be much expanded, or new, stand-alone settlements that are sympathetic to Scotland's landscape and environment.
- Establishing a Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers ( LIFT) to broaden the range of financial products and other forms of assistance available to help people achieve and sustain home ownership.
- Setting an agenda for the private rented sector that encourages the sector to flourish and play a full role in meeting housing need in urban and rural areas through the provision of good quality accommodation for private rent.
- Improving the choice available to homeless people through measures that encourage private landlords to offer accommodation suitable for those presenting as homeless.
- Heralding a new, positive role for local authorities as social landlords by offering them incentives to build new council houses.
- Safeguarding the future of all new social housing - whether built by local authorities or housing associations - by ending the Right to Buy for new social housing properties (except in tightly defined circumstances).
- Improving the supply of new housing association houses by awarding subsidies to associations on a strategic and competitive basis.
- Improving the choice and supply of affordable homes, and the contribution they can make to creating mixed communities, through the introduction of incentives to build houses for mid-market rent and of measures to enable local authorities and housing associations to adjust the mix of their stock.
- Monitoring local authorities' and housing associations' progress in complying with the Scottish Housing Quality Standard; and being prepared to consider support for local authorities that choose to retain their stock and create Arms Length Management Organisations to achieve compliance
with the Standard. - Modernising the regulation of social housing through the creation of a new regulatory function that is focussed on protecting and promoting the interests of current and future tenants, that reduces the burden of regulation and inspection on local authorities and housing associations, and that exercises its powers independently of Ministers.
These proposals are intended to secure major improvements in the supply and quality of new housing in Scotland, enabling people across the country to meet their housing needs and aspirations. Their scope and variety highlight the scale of the housing challenge facing us as a country. We will need help from the full range of housing stakeholders if we are to turn them into sound policies that will enable us to meet the challenge. We hope that home owners, tenants, those in housing need - and the bodies representing these groups - along with landlords and developers will take the opportunity to shape Scotland's housing policy by responding to this document.
We are particularly concerned that the policies we develop in light of responses from stakeholders and the public are relevant to the needs of all sections of Scottish society. We are determined to drive forward the integration of equality into all our policies and spending plans, and to support the mainstreaming of the culture of equality into all aspects of the service planning and delivery of other organisations. We would therefore welcome comments and advice on the potential impacts for particular groups of the proposals in this document to ensure that our housing policies evolve in a way which will contribute to the creation of an open, just and inclusive Scotland.
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