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Modernising Scotland's Social Housing: A consultation paper

Ministerial Foreword

In my statement to Parliament on 7 November 2002 I set out a number of housing policy initiatives and undertook to consult local authorities, registered social landlords and others about how we should take those proposals forward. This paper fulfils that commitment.

I described my statement at the time as representing a major evolution of housing policy. The cross-party support and the endorsement given to it by those involved in social housing is, I believe, evidence that my proposals will make a significant contribution to improving the standard of social housing across Scotland. This won’t be achieved overnight though. There’s no way that we can put right, as quickly as we would all like, the problems that have beset social housing for generations. But since 1999 we have been working hard to deal with those problems. The most tangible evidence of that is the work that we’ve done to support the local authorities in Glasgow, Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway in the transfer of their entire stock to new, not-for-profit landlords, which will see £2 billion of new investment in 100,000 houses over the next 10 years.

Not so many years ago investment on that scale in social housing was a pipe-dream, as was the thought of seeing so many houses brought up to a modern, decent standard. The fact is that we are turning the dream into a reality for 100,000 families. But we don’t want it to stop there. My objective is to see all social housing providing a minimum quality standard to those who live in it. This consultation paper starts the process of working with local authorities, Registered Social Landlords and others to set the precise details of the standard.

Modernising our social housing in this way will of course need to be paid for. I believe that community ownership remains the best way of unlocking the necessary sums and we will continue to work with local authorities to progress transfer proposals — which now include the option of looking at partial stock transfer as part of a whole-stock strategy. We will give local authorities new freedoms to increase investment through a prudential framework. This should offer those local authorities with low to moderate rent and debt levels some opportunity to raise new borrowing but I expect that for others whole-stock transfer will remain the best way of raising the necessary investment to deliver the new standard for their tenants. But whatever option local authorities decide upon it will need to deliver the new quality standard. We will work with and provide support to those local authorities that embrace the standard, but those that don’t should not expect any extra support from the Executive.

But, important though investment in the housing fabric is, we shouldn’t see it as an end in itself. We have to stand back and make sure that it contributes to the building of safe, strong communities: communities that are sustainable in the long term. In some areas, that will require looking at the investment in the context of a wider regeneration effort to tackle deprivation and under-investment. Elsewhere the pressures to be addressed will come from economic growth while in others it might be dealing with the consequences of a failure in the housing market. One simple prescription can’t cure this range of problems, which is why we have been working hard to develop an integrated approach that can respond flexibly to the needs and circumstances of individual areas and communities.

These are important issues and I think that we have a great opportunity to work together to bring real improvements to the lives of all those who live in social housing. The developments outlined in this paper will also make an important contribution to our goal of delivering social justice for all and closing the opportunity gap.

I look forward to receiving your views.

Margaret Curran MSP
Minister for Social Justice
March 2003

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