We need to work together to help the homeless - David Alexander

As Christmas approaches, the prospect of a roof over their heads could be a distant one for many Scots as homelessness impacts more and more people in Scotland with the deepening housing supply crisis.

My firm works closely with councils to try and find accommodation for those who find themselves homeless, but demand is far outstripping supply, and everyone involved feels that we are losing the battle to find people homes.

There is an acute shortage of housing across Scotland at the moment, but this is at a critical stage in Edinburgh where supply has not kept up with demand for decades. The result is that thousands of people a month apply for accommodation with our firm, and we often have hundreds of people on waiting lists for properties.

Recent warnings from the housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland said that Scotland’s local authorities are running out of options to help people. The charity has said that the situation is the worst it has ever seen – with some local authorities even sending people to live in the North of England. Edinburgh city council has admitted that it is housing individuals and families far from the capital – sometimes as far afield as Inverness – because there are no other options.

DJ Alexander Chief Executive David Alexander

The latest Scottish Government statistics show that between 2020 and 2021 the number of people on the social housing waiting list rose by 7.1% (9,600) from 135,300 to 144,900. This is despite the number of new applicants joining the list falling to 64,801 in 2021 which is the lowest annual level on record.

But of greater concern is that the number of permanent lettings to homeless Scots in 2020-21 was 9,488 which is the lowest figure since 2004-05. There are fewer and fewer homes available but greater and greater demand.

This cannot go on and the solution is to seek as broad a consensus as possible on how to resolve these issues. Given the enormous number of people now on the social housing waiting list in Scotland we need to develop answers which will work for decades to come rather than a matter of months or years.

This is a problem which has been growing for decades so there will be no instant solution, no quick fix to resolve this issue. Councils and government want to say that it is the private rented sector or the increase in short term lets that has caused there to be a housing shortage and by simply eradicating these two sectors the problem will be solved.

Homelessness has risen in Scotland with nearly 16,000 children reporting as homeless.

The truth is that in December 1993 (when the Scottish government data begins) social housing accounted for 37.5% of all homes in Scotland. By March 2020 this had fallen to 23.0% of all homes. That is 214,000 fewer social housing homes over a time when the Scottish population has increased by 353,000.

Had the number of properties in the social housing sector remained at the same level as nearly 30 years ago there would be no housing problem and the private rented sector would not have grown to fill the gap. Without a substantial increase in the number of social houses in Scotland this situation will continue and any other action than housebuilding will simply be tinkering at the edges of this serious problem.

The housing sector should not be divided on such a major issue, and it is key for everyone involved whether in the social housing sector, the private rented sector, housebuilders, housing associations, local councils, and central government to work together to ensure that this situation can be resolved so that we can provide homes for people where they are most needed.

Nobody wants to see anyone living on the streets at Christmas or any other time of the year. Nobody wants the homeless to be put into temporary accommodation hundreds of miles from their families and friends with young children living in cramped hotel rooms. A solution to these issues requires long term planning, coordination, communication, and a desire to produce solutions rather than arguments about the virtues of one form of housing over another.

We need sufficient housing of good quality in places where people want to live and which are appropriate to the needs of the individual, couples, and families who are placed in these properties. We need policies which look beyond the short term political parliamentary timeframe and to plan for enough homes to be provided over the next two decades so that Scots have a home to be proud of and somewhere to happily celebrate Christmas in the future.

David Alexander is CEO of DJ Alexander Scotland Ltd