Can Scotland provide adequate housing?

How can Scotland provide adequate rented housing?

Stephen Richard — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 08:13:20 +0000

How can Scotland provide adequate rented housing? Stephen Richard Sun, 10/17/2021 - 09:13

Author or Creator

Common Weal

Scotland’s housing market should offer people a quality public rental option. There is a financial model which would allow the Scottish National Investment Bank to finance high quality housing for rent.

It is almost politically impossible these days to say that we must control house price inflation – but we absolutely must control house price inflation. The best way to do this is to give people a high-quality, affordable alternative to the private market which is fuelling the rising house prices. Rather than seeing public rental housing as a solution to the ‘problem’ of people who can’t get on the housing ladder or a response to poverty we should see it as a positive choice for people to make. If we developed desirable new sites as public rental housing and built those houses to the highest quality and made them available for social rent, just as in many other European countries young people and families would chose to live in them because its the best option for them and not only because it is the only option.

Common Weal has produced an economic model for how to do this called Good Houses for All. First, we need to use Land Value Capture (explained in this report ) so that the public can buy land at its value pre-planning permission (which after all is a right granted by the public in the public interest). Then by using long term patient finance supplied by the Scottish National Investment Bank it is possible to build houses to the very highest environmental standard without requiring any public subsidy. That means that the number of houses that could be built would be limited only by how many people wanted them. And rents would be slashed – the average two-bedroom house currently costs about £1,400 to rent, heat and maintain each month and yet these new, higher, quality ones would cost only a little over £800 a month. This could represent a revolution in Scotland’s housing system.

But there are other, more direct ways to impact on house prices. The existing Council Tax is grossly unfair, with people living in the least expensive houses paying something like five or six times as much tax proportionately as those living in the most expensive houses. Replacing this tax with one that taxed houses fairly based on their real value would mean that people who have benefited from rising house prices would pay their fair share. That’s why we propose a Property Tax to replace the Council Tax and to dampen down house price inflation.

In the Common Home Plan (our Green New Deal which you can read here) we explain how Scotland can improve the housing it has, bringing it up to the highest possible environmental standards without the homeowner having to pay. By replacing heating systems and properly retrofitting houses with insulation (which will be discussed in more detail in a forthcoming report), borrowing to fund it over a long period, connecting it to a proper industrial strategy so the supply chains for this are captured and by doing it all collectively as part of a Green New Deal we can generate more new public income than the work itself costs.

We have also published two visions for the kind of housing system Scotland should aspire to – House Keeping Scotland and the more economically-focussed Housing for a Better Nation. They cover everything from why we should repair rather than knock down existing buildings to why we should build our new buildings primarily from Scottish timber.

And as explained in our Big Idea on protecting tenants, we have also set out details of why Scotland needs rent controls, why the ones we have don’t work and what it would look like if they were done properly.

Keywords

Housing

Rental Housing

The Homelessness Monitor: Scotland 2021

Stephen Richard — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 09:19:59 +0000

The Homelessness Monitor: Scotland 2021

Primary Author or Creator

Beth Watts

Stephen Richard Wed, 09/29/2021 - 10:19

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Glen Bramley, Hal Pawson, Gillian Young

Alternative Published Date

2021

Category

Housing

Type of Resource

Assessment report

Length (Pages, words, minutes etc...)

74pp

Fast Facts

Rates of core homelessness are substantially lower in Scotland (0.57% of households) than in England (0.94%) and Wales (0.66%). In March 2021, the numbers in temporary housing stood at over 13,000. This is well above the previous peak of 11,665 a year before.

More details

Statutory homelessness had been on a steadily rising trajectory pre pandemic, with the number of households assessed as legally homeless having grown by 10% in the period 2016/17-2019/20. The pandemic year 2020/21 saw a year-on-year fall in statutory homeless acceptances of 13% (to 27,571), and 20% in the first quarter of 2020/21 (April-June) compared to the previous quarter.
The number of households in temporary accommodation had been at a stable high of 10-11,000 for the decade up until March 2019. In March 2021, the numbers in temporary accommodation stood at over 13,000, well above the previous peak of 11,665 a year previously.
‘Core homelessness’ – a concept which captures the most severe and immediate forms of homelessness – is estimated to have stood at 14,250 households on a given night in Scotland in 2019, having been relatively stable over the preceding seven years. Rates of core homelessness are substantially lower in Scotland (0.57% of households) than in England (0.94%) and Wales (0.66%).
Homelessness has been a renewed policy priority in Scotland for the five years or so preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, the Scottish Government published the Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan, taking forward all recommendations of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (2017/18).
Local authority Rapid Rehousing Transition Plans are a key delivery mechanism for the Action Plan. Around half of local authorities have already made changes to social housing allocations policies as a result of these Plans, primarily increasing priority to homeless households. While the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted implementation, the Plans were seen to have supported responses to the crisis. Despite increases in the Scottish Government funding committed to implementation, there are concerns that the Plans remain acutely under-resourced.
The Scottish Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic focused on accommodating people sleeping rough and decanting night shelter accommodation using hotel or other single-room accommodation. These measures were credited by key informants and some local authorities with reducing rough sleeping to unprecedently low levels. Statutory data indicate a year on year national-level reduction in the region of 10 to 16%, but key informant views suggest reductions of greater magnitude. In combination with enhanced safety measures in congregate accommodation, the homelessness response to COVID-19 was also seen to have kept COVID-19 infection rates to a minimum among homeless and at-risk populations.
A range of short-term measures are modelled as being able to alleviate a post-pandemic rise – and in fact reduce – core homelessness, with the biggest potential associated with the use of rapid rehousing to settled accommodation. Specifically, in relation to rough sleeping, the most impactful practices would be prioritised access to settled housing and continued use of the special COVID-related provision of hotel type accommodation.
In the longer term, large projected core homelessness reductions could be generated by rapid rehousing quotas, prevention and welfare measures, raising the Local Housing Allowance, and sustained expansion of Housing First and accompanying reduction in traditional hostel accommodation. Social housing supply increases, even when carefully targeted at the most under pressure areas, have limited beneficial effects that materialise only in the longer term, though such changes may enable others measures, particularly rapid rehousing.

Resource Address (URL)

https://www.crisis.org.uk/media/245880/the-homelessness-monitor-scotland-2021.p…

Keywords

Homeless

Social housing

Housing

Language English

A new housing settlement

Stephen Richard — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 08:54:06 +0000

A new housing settlement

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/14/2021 - 09:54

Alternative Published Date

2020

Category

Housing

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

There is so much wrong with our housing system, from needless homelessness to spiralling costs (which have shut a generation out of housing) to over-mortgaged homeowners struggling financially to the sheer environmental inefficiency of much of the housing we build to the failure to build homes how and where communities need rather than where a developer can make most money.

More details

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/big-ideas/a-new-housing-settlement/

Keywords

Language English

Alienating, insecure and unaffordable: Living in Scotland’s private rented sector

Stephen Richard — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:51:23 +0000

Alienating, insecure and unaffordable: Living in Scotland’s private rented sector

Primary Author or Creator

Ben Wray

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/07/2021 - 09:51

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

October 2017

Category

Private rental

Type of Resource

Assessment report

Fast Facts

Ben Wray analyses new data on the experience of living in Scotland’s private rented sector, and argues for reversing the trend under devolution of increasing privatisation of the rental market.

More details

― The findings of this analysis paper are based on data in the Scottish Households Survey 2016, published by the Scottish Government at the end of September. This data provides fresh insight into the experience of living in housing in Scotland – this paper focuses on the private rented sector (PRS) in particular.

― Young people are the demographic most affected by the growth of PRS, with 40% of 16-34 year olds using PRS today compared to 13% in 1999. Young people face specific challenges in terms of low-incomes, insecure work and poverty. While poverty levels among young people for those in social housing has fallen, it has nearly tripled in PRS from 2005-15. Other demographic groups disproportionately represented in PRS include students and people of Asian descent.

― Private rent is uniquely insecure, with over two-thirds (68%) of people staying less than two years in one flat and 41% staying less than one year. The average PRS stay is 2.8 years, compared to 10.6 years in social housing, nearly five times longer. While it is too early to assess the effectiveness of new Scottish Government legislation to address security of tenure, further measures could be taken to make the power between landlords and tenants more balanced.

― Tenants in PRS accommodation are considerably more alienated from their community than in social housing. Only one in five (19%) PRS tenants had a very strong connection to their neighbourhood, compared to 33% in social housing. 40% in PRS felt they were not very or not at all connected to their neighbourhood, compared to 23% in social housing. Alienation has been linked to public health problems in Scotland. Increasing security of tenure and tackling gentrification – which acts to displace poorer people from their communities – could be part of addressing this issue.

― There is significant demand within PRS for moving to social housing. Approximately 40,000 people in PRS (11%) are on a social housing waiting list. Approximately 5,000 (12%) of that number have been on a waiting list for 10+ years. Nearly one-third (31%) of those are on the waiting list because they can’t afford their current housing, while 11% are on because they’ve been threatened with homelessness. These figures are an indication of the lack of affordability of PRS housing and the under-supply of social housing. The introduction of rent pressure zones is likely to have some effect in restricting future rent rises and tackling regional inequities, but is not necessarily going to reduce the number of PRS tenants finding rent unaffordable. A Dutch model of rent controls which links cost to quality of property and ensure affordability would be a step forward. The Scottish Government’s social housebuilding programme should be stepped up considerably.

― PRS has lower energy efficiency levels than social housing, with only one-third (34%) of homes meeting the Scottish Government’s band-C energy efficiency rating target. Poor energy efficiency is a major driver of fuel poverty, with the PRS sector being the highest contributor of emissions per home. One-third (33%) of PRS households are in fuel poverty. Over half (51%) of PRS properties still fail the Scottish Government’s Scottish Housing Quality Standard, which is mandatory for social housing. 5% of PRS homes fall below the Tolerable Standard, which is categorised as homes that it is not reasonable for a person to continue to live in, compared to 1% in social housing. Quality could be addressed by a system of rent controls which ties quality to cost, incentivising the landlord to improve the property.

― The value of the private rented sector to society as a whole should be reassessed by the Scottish Government, and consideration given to a long-term strategy to reverse the trend since devolution towards increasing privatisation of the rented sector. This could be done through a combination of strengthening and increasing the diversity of social housing so that it is once again a universal service and establishing a regulatory regime for PRS that puts it on at least a level playing field with social housing in terms of quality, affordability and security, restricting its profit-making capacity for landlords. The reversing of privatisation in Scotland’s rental market should be something for Scottish politicians to triumph not fear.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Alienating-insecure-and-unaf…

Keywords

Scottish Households Survey

Rental Housing

Secure tenancies

Housing quality

Language English

Housing 2040 Consultation Response

Stephen Richard — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:19:19 +0000

Housing 2040 Consultation Response

Primary Author or Creator

Malcolm Fraser

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/07/2021 - 09:19

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Fraser/Livingstone Architects, Common Weal, Scotland’s Town Partnership

Category

Housing

Type of Resource

consultation response

Fast Facts

The 2040 “Vision” document sets out aspirations. The overall message, that a good home and community, as a human right, is a font of wellbeing, rather than an outcome of wealth-creation, is very welcome. The following suggests the levers necessary to deliver this and its associated aspirations. It also notes the places where associated policy initiatives and campaigns are advancing.

The proposals cover a wide range of policy areas including: Existing buildings, land and planning, regeneration, finance, leadership, diversification, technology and materials, and tax and wealth.

More details

― Scotland needs a national strategy to repair, upgrade and re-occupy Scotland’s 34,000+ vacant and underoccupied homes.

― The UK Government’s repeated refusal to levelise VAT between newbuild and repaired/upgraded work on homes must be challenged urgently and with increased strength.

― Compulsory Sales Orders and Existing Use Land sales can be used to free up land for public housing development and prevent land being banked for price speculation.

― A National Housing Company must be created to increase housing supply and increase the standard of newbuild housing.

― The Scottish National Investment Bank can fund a new generation of social housing but Scotland should also increase the use of alternative ownership models such as co-ownership and collective self-build projects.

― Houses in Scotland should be build to zero-carbon and passive energy standards but should also be designed to eliminate toxic or non-sustainable materials and materials that cannot be easily reused or recycled when the building reaches end-of-life.

― Scotland should increase wealth taxation to reduce wealth inequality across society.

― Too many houses are used essentially as capital investments which has led to house price inflation and unaffordable living for too many. Houses should, first and foremost, be a home.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Housing-2040-Consultation-Re…

Keywords

Language English

Good Houses For All

Stephen Richard — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 08:08:35 +0000

Good Houses For All

Primary Author or Creator

Craig Dalzell

Stephen Richard Tue, 09/07/2021 - 09:08

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Sun, 04/05/2020 - 12:00

Category

Social housing

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

This paper presents a model for building an unlimited number of houses for social rent on a zero-subsidy basis using the Scottish National Investment Bank.

These houses would be built to extremely high standards of thermal efficiency and on a stable finance model ensuring costs to the tenant are far lower than the private market.

The case is made that this model could be used as a post-pandemic stimulus scheme which will reform and secure the housing and construction sector.

More details

― Scotland’s housing market should offer people a quality public rental option, whether for young professionals not ready to enter the mortgage market, lower income renters who have few good rental options or families at any point on the income scale who simply don’t want their lives dictated by mortgages. Public policy should also seek to constrain house price rises but also drive up the highest possible thermal performance for new build houses.

― Scotland also needs forms of stimulus after the Covid lockdown and public rental house building linked to an industrial strategy to create many more domestic supply chains can create that stimulus.

― There is a financing model which means this can be achieved at unlimited
scale without public subsidy, involving three steps:

Use ‘Land Value Capture’. At the moment the public buys land and pays
for it as if planning permission had already been granted – but planning
permission is a value added by the public sector and the public sector
can capture that value rather than give it away by buying land only at
its current use value and not its later value with planning permission.
Then borrow from the Scottish National Investment Bank over
mortgage-style periods of time (30 years) and spread the cost of the
borrowing over that period so that rents are low.
Finally, build in a proper maintenance budget so these remain high-
quality houses in perpetuity. It is also possible to sell off a limited
number of plots (for self build) and a small proportion of the houses.
This can give the public developers some additional budget to include
extra public infrastructure in new developments.

― To achieve this the Scottish National Investment Bank should be given
immediate dispensation to operate as a proper bank and local authorities
should open ‘lists’ for families who want to live in one of these houses.
Supply can then be allowed to meet demand.

― In the current market a three-bedroom family home would incur a monthly
cost in rent, heating and maintenance of about £1,400. A house built using
the above methodology would have a monthly rent, maintenance and
heating bill of only £820.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Good-Houses-For-All.pdf

Keywords

Scottish National Investment Bank

Housing quality

House prices

Language English

Scottish Building Regulations: Review of Energy Standards – Common Weal Consultation Response

Stephen Richard — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 11:28:44 +0000

Scottish Building Regulations: Review of Energy Standards – Common Weal Consultation Response

Primary Author or Creator

Linda Pearson

Stephen Richard Wed, 09/01/2021 - 12:28

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Sat, 08/11/2018 - 12:00

Category

Energy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

― According to the latest figures, 26.5% (or around 649,000) of Scottish households live in fuel poverty while 7.5% of households (183,000) live in extreme fuel poverty. This is unacceptable in contemporary Scotland.

― The Scottish Government should abandon its staged approach to housing energy efficiency improves as it creates ongoing (rather than one-time) upheaval for construction companies and adds to the problem of retrofitting existing buildings to the most efficient standards.

― Instead, all new buildings in Scotland should be constructed to passive and zero-carbon standards.

― Existing buildings are currently scheduled to be retrofitted in stages guided by their EPC rating. Any building retrofitted to meet the EPC C target will need to be retrofitted again at a future date to meet the EPC A target.

― Instead, all buildings should be surveyed immediately and assessed on their maximum feasible retrofitting potential. They should then be scheduled to be retrofitted to that potential in a single project.

― Where it is not possible for buildings to be retrofitted to passive standards, zero carbon abatements such as solar thermal or solar PV should be installed to ensure an adequate level of zero-carbon heating.

― Passive standards such as PassivHaus and Enerphit are well established but other standards should be explored which can produce similar efficiency standards but make more use of locally sourced materials such as Scottish timber and timber products.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Scottish-Building-Regulation…

Keywords

Energy efficient buildings

Building regulations

Energy efficiency

Fuel poverty

Language English

The Future of Low Carbon Heat For Off-Gas Buildings

Stephen Richard — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 15:45:12 +0000

The Future of Low Carbon Heat For Off-Gas Buildings

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Tue, 08/31/2021 - 16:45

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Glaagow Caledonian University, Energy Poverty Research Initiative

Date Published

Tue, 09/17/2019 - 12:00

Category

Energy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

― We have identified no examples of low-carbon heating being taken up on a large scale without government assistance.

― The primary barrier to the roll-out of low carbon heat is financial. Efficient schemes like renewably powered district heating will have to be government financed.

― Without significant government planning, individual households are likely to decarbonise their heat using heat pumps which, while an improvement over fossil fuels, have significant downsides – not least, their collective impact on the electrical grid.

― Biofuels like biopropane or biokerosene may play a significant role in rural heating where they can seamlessly replace off-grid heating without the need to install new infrastructure.

― However we remain cautious about the roll-out of hydrogen which will require almost as much new infrastructure as district heating, will deliver less good outcomes and will encourage the use of “blue” hydrogen derived from fossil fuels as much as it will encourage “green” hydrogen from renewable sources.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Low-carbon-heat-submission.p…

Keywords

Housing

Energy efficient buildings

Language English

Energy Efficient Scotland Consultation

Stephen Richard — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 15:34:08 +0000

Energy Efficient Scotland Consultation

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Tue, 08/31/2021 - 16:34

Alternative Published Date

June 2019

Category

Energy

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

― In principle, Common Weal supports mandatory improvements for houses owned by owner-occupiers and private landlords however we note a number of problems with the proposals covered by this consultation.

― We object to energy efficiency being measuring using Energy Performance Certificates due to the severe shortfalls in the methodology used to determine them.

― We consider that mandatory improvements should be made at point of sale, point of change of tenancy or when a property is extended by 25% or more of its floor area. Following a one year grace period, properties that have not been improved by the owner should be barred from sale, lease or further extension until improvements are made.

― The onus of improvement should not be entirely on individual action even when it becomes mandatory. Collective energy efficiency improvements such as installing heat networks or the economies of scale of “whole street” improvements can only be done by collective action at government level.

― Where individual actions are appropriate, grant funding and other resources should be made available to ensure that owners comply with mandatory efficiency improvements.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/EES-Consultation-Response.pdf

Keywords

Energy poverty

Energy Performance Certificates

Language English

A Living Rent for Scotland’s Private Tenants

Stephen Richard — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:00:28 +0000

A Living Rent for Scotland’s Private Tenants

Primary Author or Creator

Gordon Maloney

Stephen Richard Wed, 08/18/2021 - 19:00

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

September 2015

Category

Private rental

Social housing

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Initial rents should be set against a points system to reflect the value of the property. Rent increases be capped at a rent affordability index to ensure increases do not push tenants into hardship. A move towards indefinite tenancies as default, away from short-term contracts. Ensure that all tenants are entitled to a hardship defence in relation to evictions. Create a Scottish Living Rent Commission, to oversee these recommendations and to serve as a centre of expertise for the Scottish Private Rental Sector.

More details

Rents in Scotland are increasing faster than many tenants can afford, and many are being forced into poverty by these increases. Women are particularly hard-hit by high rents due to a gender pay gap of almost 18%. PRS tenants are disproportionately young, non-white and non-British, meaning there is a crucial equalities aspect to making the PRS fairer. High rents, insecure tenancies and poor quality housing have an enormous public cost; directly through housing benefit and discretionary housing payments; and indirectly through the costs associated with homelessness and the health impacts of damp and cold housing. Scotland’s tenants are amongst the least secure in Europe.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

In order to bring rents under control and to give tenants security of tenure, we propose the following changes: That initial rents be set against a points system to reflect the value of the property That rent increases be capped at a rent affordability index to ensure increases do not push tenants into hardship A move towards indefinite tenancies as default, away from short-term contracts Ensuring that all tenants are entitled to a hardship defence in relation to evictions The creation of a Scottish Living Rent Commission, to oversee these recommendations and to serve as a centre of expertise for the Scottish Private Rental Sector

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/A-Living-Rent-for-Scotlands-…

Keywords

Language English