Chapter 2 Ensuring
Good Quality Housing for All
Introduction
2.1 This chapter seeks
views on a range of policies that the Government believes
should form an essential part of any long-term housing
strategy for Scotland. They are the key policies which
the Scottish Executive will need to get right to improve
housing opportunities and to help to ensure good quality
housing for all. In particular, they complement the
proposals for developing community ownership in Scotland
which are described in some detail in Chapter 3.
Taking
Account of the Wider Picture
2.2 The homes we live in
are central to the quality of our lives. They provide
protection against the elements, privacy and security and
the setting for our daily personal and family lives. Good
quality, affordable housing is important in its own right
and policies to secure this need no further
justification. But policies must also take account of the
links between housing and other objectives of Government.
These links are wide-ranging and not always fully
understood. Although there is a need for further research
to guide policy in the future, housing policies now need
to recognise these links, particularly in the following
three key areas:
|
| |
| Housing and Health |
| The
Scottish Office report Poor Housing and Ill Health published
recently summarised the available evidence on the links
between house condition and the health of the occupants.
These links are complex, but we cannot allow their
complexity to become an excuse for inaction. For example,
we know already that the presence of radon gas in homes
can increase the risks of contracting lung cancer and it
has been shown that continued exposure to lead in water
resulting from lead piping can have an adverse effect on
the intellectual development of children.1 We
know too that damp and mouldy housing has an adverse
effect on health, and although this is difficult to
quantify it is clear that tackling such conditions will
also help to create a domestic environment contributory
to health and well being. Studies of children have found
a strong link between poor housing and a range of
ailments such as respiratory problems, aches and pains,
fever, headaches etc; and this is a particular cause of
concern. There are also strong links between homelessness
(especially rough sleeping) and poor health. Inadequate
living conditions may, in addition, contribute to low
morale and poor mental health. All these factors
underline the importance of housing for health and this
should be a significant influence on the development of
policy. |
| Improving
the circumstances in which we live must be a key element
of the drive to better health and tackling health
inequalities. The White Paper Working Together for a
Healthier Scotland published in February sets out a
comprehensive approach to health improvement, with stress
on a coherent and co-ordinated strategy for attacking the
roots of ill-health, rather than concentrating simply on
diseases or lifestyles. Poverty, unemployment, housing
and the environment around us are all inextricably linked
with health and only by tackling these issues will we
achieve the sustained health improvement we all desire.
The White Paper accordingly confirmed the contribution
which good housing can make to better health and well
being, including improved mental health and fewer
accidents. Good housing for all has a key role to play in
achieving health for all. |
| |
| Housing and the Environment |
| The
construction of new housing requires land and other
finite resources. The use of housing during its available
lifetime takes up fossil fuels for heating and other
resources for repair and maintenance, and its eventual
demolition will raise issues about waste disposal and the
re-use of the site. There is a clear need for housing
policies which make best use of these resources in line
with the principles of sustainable development and
minimise any adverse effects on global climate change. It
is also important that policies for urban design and for
development in the countryside ensure that the housing
stock makes a positive contribution to the built
heritage. |
| |
Housing
and Employment
The housing sector plays an
important role in creating and sustaining employment. In
recent years, identifiable housing related employment has
amounted to around 90,000 jobs - over 60,000 in
construction work, just under 20,000 in property
management, sale and surveying activities and somewhat
less than 10,000 in local authority housing related
employment i.e. the equivalent of around 4.5% of total
employment. In addition, housing investment promotes
employment in the wider economy in, for example,
companies that supply building materials and consumer
goods. Recent research on the Scottish building supply
sector suggests that construction activity has a
significant multiplier effect in terms of job creation.2
Housing investment programmes must be justified in their
own terms rather than as a means of generating extra
employment, but there may be opportunities for linking
housing investment projects to training programmes to
help to ensure that unemployed people are able to benefit
from the jobs that are created and so far as possible
programmes help to benefit local residents.
|
2.3 The
link between particular housing initiatives and these
wider issues can be multi-faceted. For example, our
"Warm Deal" energy efficiency programme will
have benefits for health and the environment as well as
providing training opportunities through the New Deal.
Recognising these linkages, and others such as the links
between housing and education and housing and the
prevention of crime, is fundamental to developing the
"joined up" policies that are at the heart of
effective Government.
|
Energy efficient improvements
provide
training opportunities through the Warm Deal.
|
| |
| Promoting
Social Inclusion Through Housing |
| 2.4
Good housing has a vital part to play in promoting social
inclusion, and although it cannot, on its own, provide a
panacea for all the ills of social exclusion, a decent
secure and affordable home for all is fundamental to the
development of the sort of inclusive and participative
society the Government wants in Scotland. At the local
level housing has played a major role in the New Life
urban partnerships and in many of the PPAs (Priority
Partnership Areas) which have taken forward the
sustainable regeneration of deprived urban areas. Local
authorities and Scottish Homes have been active in
delivering the regeneration strategies in these areas. In
1998-99, approximately a third of the development
programme of Scottish Homes was earmarked for expenditure
in the designated PPAs, bringing about real change in
unpopular neighbourhoods and on our worst estates. |
| 2.5
The community ownership proposals described in Chapter 3
will be a major step forward in promoting social
inclusion in Scotland and housing will continue to play
an important role in the new initiatives we have launched
to promote social inclusion and community regeneration.
This would include both the new Social Inclusion
Partnerships which will be designated shortly and those
remote, rural areas that have been identified as
priorities in the Initiative at the Edge. In both cases,
the requirement for new housing investment must depend on
careful assessment of needs at the local level and the
priorities and strategies that are agreed between the
various partners and the local community. Nevertheless,
where extra resources are required on the housing side,
the Government believes that this should be a priority
for local authorities and Scottish Homes. And where this
is part of the agreed local strategy, these resources
should be used to encourage owner-occupation as well as
providing better quality rented housing. |
| 2.6
In many socially excluded communities, partnerships
working to tackle all aspects of social exclusion,
through a strategic approach, will facilitate the
development of neighbourhoods with a sustainable mix of
tenures and support local community initiatives to
improve their immediate surroundings. Promoting social
inclusion also requires policies and programmes aimed at
vulnerable groups such as the homeless and people with
community care needs. The paragraphs below describe the
wide-ranging housing initiatives that the Government has
taken forward and how these might be developed in the
future. |
| |
| Tackling
Homelessness |
| 2.7
Amongst the most serious forms of social exclusion facing
Scotland today is homelessness in general and rough
sleeping in particular. These can have a very damaging
effect on self-esteem, mental and physical health and
prospects for education, training and employment. During
the 1980s and early 1990s, as the figures in Chapter 1
indicated, the number of applications to local
authorities under the homeless persons legislation
increased significantly and it is generally believed that
there was a parallel increase in rough sleeping,
particularly by young people. The Government has taken
initiatives to tackle some of the most pressing needs and
we have also laid the foundations for a longer term and
more fundamental attack on the problems of homelessness. |
| |
| Rooflessness and the Rough Sleepers
Initiative 2.8 Our
top priority has been to help those who are literally
roofless, or in serious danger of becoming so, with the
objective of removing the need for anyone to sleep rough
by 2002. Through the Rough Sleepers Initiative we have
encouraged and assisted local authorities to assess the
extent of the problem of rough sleeping in their area and
to develop strategies to address that problem. An
Advisory Group with representatives from COSLA, Shelter,
the Scottish Council for the Single Homeless, the Simon
Community and Scottish Homes was established to make
recommendations on the allocation of the budget set aside
for the Initiative. Funding from the initial phases of
the Initiative has enabled authorities, often for the
first time, to gain a clearer picture of the extent and
nature of rough sleeping within their areas, and these
early assessments have helped authorities develop
appropriate strategies. An important objective of the
Initiative has been to foster a partnership approach and
local authorities have been encouraged to work closely
with other bodies including the police and health boards
as well as Scottish Homes and the many voluntary
organisations who are already making a significant
contribution to addressing this problem. It has been
important to encourage the development of an appropriate
mix of provision and services which might include
outreach work to make contact with those sleeping rough,
accommodation which can be used as places of initial
shelter and support and a range of "move-on"
accommodation.
|
 |
Sleeping rough on the streets of
Edinburgh.
|
| |
| 2.9
In line with these objectives, the £16 million which was
allocated to the Initiative over the three years from
1997-98 to 1999-2000 has funded a wide range of projects.
They encompass direct access accommodation; specialist
supported housing, including accommodation for young
single people moving on from hostels and direct access
provision; improvements to existing day and night support
services; outreach workers; and information gathering. A
team of researchers has been appointed to provide a
preliminary evaluation of the Initiative, but the
Initiative has already clearly highlighted the importance
of action to prevent circumstances which lead to rough
sleeping and also of ensuring that there is accommodation
for people when moving on from direct access hostels
together with any necessary support. |
| 2.10
The Government has recently announced that it will be
providing an additional £14 million to extend the
Initiative for a further two years to 2001-02. We also
invited the RSI Advisory Group to use its experience and
expertise to provide advice on removing the need for
rough sleeping in Scotland by the year 2002 and we are
consulting separately on their proposals. |
| |
| Applications for Assistance under
the Homelessness Legislation |
| 2.11
Policies for tackling homelessness must go beyond helping
those who are roofless and also take account of
households who are homeless or threatened with
homelessness because they have lost or are in danger of
losing their homes. Public policies should aim to prevent
homelessness, where this is possible, and to ensure that
where homelessness does occur appropriate action is taken
to help those affected. |
| 2.12
As well as recording an increase in the number of
applications, the statistics collected by local
authorities on people seeking assistance under the
homelessness legislation provide some information on the
reasons why assistance is being sought. In 1996-97, of
those applicants assessed as homeless or potentially
homeless and in priority need, 66% gave as the immediate
reason for their homelessness either a dispute with their
partner or that friends and relatives were no longer able
to accommodate them, 15% mentioned a court order or other
action by landlords, and only small percentages mentioned
other reasons such as loss of tied housing, fires and
floods and discharges from institutions. It is apparent
from these very broad-brush figures that not all the
causes of homelessness can be easily addressed by action
by local authorities or other public agencies.
Nevertheless, they should aim to use the information
available to them on the causes of homelessness in their
areas to help formulate local homelessness strategies.
These strategies must recognise the need for effective
inter-agency co-operation particularly between housing
and other local authority departments such as social work
and education and between the local authority itself and
other agencies such as Health Boards, the Benefits Agency
and relevant voluntary bodies. |
| |
2.13 In our
view, the key priorities in relation to meeting the needs
of homeless applicants are to ensure that:
- their needs are taken
properly into account in the provision of housing
at the local level;
- good quality advice
and information is available; and
- appropriate support
is provided, if necessary, to help those who have
been re-housed sustain their tenancies.
2.14 The Housing
(Scotland) Act 1987 places a range of statutory duties on
local authorities in relation to the homeless and it
provides for the Secretary of State to publish an
associated Code of Guidance. In order to help local
authorities and others involved in the management and
prevention of homelessness, and to ensure the
establishment of a clear framework to protect those who
are homeless, the Scottish Office has produced a new and
updated Code.
|
 |
| Its
publication in December 1997 represented a major step
forward in the fight against homelessness. It brought
together and updated a significant body of good practice
guidance to help local authorities to deliver their
statutory functions and it set out clearly the rights of
homeless people. One of the key messages in the Code is
the need for local authorities to seek to secure
permanent accommodation with security of tenure for
persons who have been assessed as homeless and in
priority need. It also stresses the importance of
effective inter-agency working, for example, between
housing and social work and it gives wide-ranging advice
on ways in which local authorities can help to prevent
homelessness including good practice guidance on dealing
with possible causes such as rent arrears, repossession
resulting from mortgage default and discharges from
institutions. |
Cost price meals at Scotland's
first purpose
built night and day centre for the homeless,
at Cowgate, Edinburgh.
|
| |
| 2.15
Access to health care is important for homeless persons,
and their lack of a permanent address can make it more
difficult for them to keep in touch with the services
they need. The Scottish Office has supported schemes in
various parts of the country which aim to make it easier
for people undergoing the stress of homelessness to
maintain contact with health services. |
| 2.16
We have also provided significant resources for the
voluntary sector to assist them in their work on
homelessness. Both the Scottish Office and Scottish Homes
have provided funding for voluntary organisations to
enable them to tackle homelessness on a range of fronts
including substantial grants to allow for the extension
throughout Scotland of the Scottish Homelessness Advisory
Service, run by Shelter Scotland and Citizens Advice
Scotland. |
| 2.17
The new Code of Guidance and the other actions described
above will have helped many homeless persons. But it is a
matter of concern that large numbers of households in
Scotland continue to find it necessary to seek assistance
under the homelessness legislation. The existing
published statistics on homelessness applicants do not
provide sufficient information on the causes and nature
of homelessness in Scotland. Nor are they sufficiently
informative to assess local authority performance in
either preparing or implementing local homelessness
strategies or in carrying out their statutory duties.
Improved information is required to inform policies and
priorities at both national and local level. The
Government therefore considers that there should be a
thorough and wide-ranging review of the causes and nature
of homelessness in Scotland. The review should seek to
produce evidence-based recommendations on how
homelessness can be prevented and, where it does occur,
how best to provide assistance to those concerned. It
will be important to ensure that organisations working
closely with the homeless are involved in this review. |
| |
- Views
are sought on the scope of the proposed review of
national and local policies on homelessness in
Scotland. Views are also sought on the best ways
of improving the information available on the
causes and nature of homelessness in Scotland to
underpin this review.
|
| |
| Foyers |
| 2.18
Foyers are schemes designed to offer hostel type
accommodation and job search, training advice and social
support to disadvantaged young people (generally 16-25)
who require such help in their transition to adulthood
and independent living. They seek to deal with
homelessness while at the same time addressing training
and support needs. Foyers have been developed in Scotland
in Aberdeen, Cumbernauld, Edinburgh and Kirkcaldy and the
Foyer Federation is encouraging further schemes. A recent
independent evaluation of existing foyers in Scotland
commissioned by Scottish Homes has produced broadly
positive results. |
| 2.19
We believe that where there has been a clear assessment
of need, and a comprehensive and long term business plan
which takes account of the need for adequate revenue
funding has been prepared, foyers can provide a
potentially valuable approach to helping smooth the
transition into working life. |
| |
- Views
are sought on the role that foyers might play in
tackling homelessness in Scotland, the scope for
further expansion of the foyer concept and the
extent to which this should be a priority in the
allocation of resources.
|
| |
| The Empty Homes Initiative |
| 2.20
There has also been widespread concern that many
properties in Scotland have remained empty despite the
growing numbers of homeless people. Some long term empty
houses are simply located in areas where there is no
demand for housing and others are now in such poor
condition that they cannot be refurbished at an economic
cost. Nevertheless, we need to make sure properties are
not being left empty when they could be used to meet
housing need. In line with the manifesto commitment to
take action to encourage the letting of empty properties
to reduce waiting lists and ease homelessness, the
Government has therefore launched an Empty Homes
Initiative (EHI). This has encouraged local authorities
to assess the number and condition of empty homes in
their areas, to prepare local strategies for tackling
this problem and to bring forward specific projects aimed
at bringing these back into use to meet housing need.
Over the last two years some £9 million has been
allocated to a range of proposals from improvement and
repairs, through improved management arrangements to
reduce the length of time particular dwellings remain
empty, to the reconfiguration of unpopular sized stock
more closely to meet present demand. A number of projects
have been specifically designed to provide housing for
vulnerable people and for those with particular housing
needs. 2.21 The
first two phases of the Initiative approved projects
which, according to the information supplied by the local
authorities concerned, should result in more than 600
houses being brought back into use at a cost to the
Initiative of approximately £12,000 per house. This is
in addition to the longer-term benefits which should
result from the support provided for research and
strategy development. A more detailed evaluation will be
commissioned in due course, but we have already concluded
that there should be a third phase covering the three
years from 1999-2000 to 2001-2002 and we recently
announced that there will be up to £15 million available
for this. Local authorities have been invited to submit
bids for this further phase.
|
 |
Empty homes
being renovated to
provide new homes for rent.
|
