Information Bulletin
16 March 2006
Shetland Islands Council to invest £13m in new housing
The Scottish Executive has made several recent changes to housing legislation. One of the primary aims is the eradication of homelessness. The Council has a statutory responsibility to house the homeless.
At the same time demographic, social and legislative changes have increased the demand for affordable social housing.
However, all funding for new affordable social housing is directed from the Scottish Executive via Communities Scotland to Registered Social Landlords (RSL’s). Councils are not eligible for funding to build houses in their own right. Hjaltland Housing Association (HHA) is the only RSL operating in Shetland and so the only recipients of government funding for new houses. HHA have been working hard to spend whatever money is made available and they have made a significant contribution to resolving the problem.
However, demand for council housing is increasing and has reached frightening proportions for a community of this size. As of the 1st January 2006, there were 857 applicants on the Council’s waiting lists. 600 of these 857 applicants are seeking housing in Lerwick. The logical consequence is that any unmet housing need will be traumatic for those families affected. It will also have an economic cost as it leads to increased demand for education, social work, housing support and health services.
As a result many will be unable to realise their full potential and so be excluded from the lifestyles and opportunities that many take for granted. This is contrary to another Scottish Executive objective of encouraging “social inclusion”.
Further, the lack of affordable housing will act as a brake on the Shetland economy as a whole and so restrict the capacity for future regeneration.
In addition, the Scottish Executive has pledged to abolish the “priority need” test in homelessness by 2012. This will inevitably fuel demand and add to the existing housing crisis.
Communities Scotland have pledged to increase investment in new housing and as a result HHA have ambitious plans to spend £30m on 377 new houses in Shetland over the next 4 years. The Council welcomes this.
Clearly, the level of investment made by the Scottish Executive and Communities Scotland so far has not averted this present crisis in Shetland. Further, it remains likely that the promised funding if delivered will be insufficient to meet demand before 2012. Therefore, as a direct result of a national housing policy that focuses on the name of the landlord and not outcomes, there are and will continue to be many applicants with unmet housing need for far longer than necessary.
With statutory responsibility on the Council but no prospect of direct funding, the Council has decided that it can no longer take the strategic risk of relying on the existing national policy from central Government, to deliver the much needed Shetland houses in the short term.
As a consequence, the Councils Services Committee have today recommended that Council approve additional investment of up to £13m of their own money to plug the housing supply gap. This decision emphasises the determination of Shetland Islands Council to meet the challenges set by the Scottish Executive, in spite of current national housing policies and funding limitations. In doing so the Council also recognises that failing to act now will compound the present problems and bring hardship to those waiting longer than necessary for a proper home. By taking decisive action now, the Council is seeking to ensure the damaging effects of existing housing policies are minimised.
The Council’s housing spokesperson Councillor Gordon Mitchell said, “I think that this proposal to fund extra affordable rented housing in Shetland is the only way that we can hope to meet the needs of the many desperate people on the waiting list. No other Council is likely to use this clever new way of solving the problem. The SIC housing staff are to be congratulated for their lateral thinking.”
The Council’s Convenor, Sandy Cluness said, “I am delighted with this initiative from Shetland Island Council's Housing Department. Lerwick councilors have to deal on a daily basis with those who are seeking housing accommodation in the town. The circumstances of many applicants are clearly far below that which we should be prepared to tolerate in this day and age. I am also aware of the pressures placed on our own staff, who regularly have to deal with clients in clearly stressful situations. Successive central governments have seemed determined to remove local authorities from the housing scene altogether, and although this may be appropriate elsewhere in Scotland it is certainly not the case in our islands. The only way we can hope to start to meet the housing demand in Lerwick is for the Council and our local housing association to act in partnership in this important endeavor”
Ends.