Gordon MacRae: Budget for homes can make 2010 a success

WAS 2009 the year that proved the cynics right? At times it felt that the only constant was failure – institutional, political and economic.

Individuals and organisations, from bankers and their bonuses, to world leaders and climate change in Copenhagen, let us down on an epic scale.

So can we get it right in 2010? Can we have faith in our leaders to do the right thing and deliver on the promise of a better Scotland?

The first big test for the Scottish Government to show that 2010 can be the year of success will come when the Scottish budget is finally passed in a few weeks time.

Budgets – particularly just now – are an opportunity for governments to set the agenda, determine a nation's priorities and demonstrate its ability to make tough decisions in the face of the big challenges.

That is why Shelter Scotland is calling on finance secretary John Swinney to make this budget a "Budget for Homes". Housing is an agenda-setting issue that was a keystone to the recession, but it can also be a pivot to helping us to dig our way out of it – not to mention help house people in need of a home.

As we start the New Year, there are over 40,000 households in Scotland without a home to call their own. We need 10,000 homes to rent each year and yet only 6,000 are planned for 2009-10. It is a tragedy that Scotland has fewer social homes to rent than at any time since 1959.

This is despite widespread recognition that spending on housing during a recession provides a greater return on investment than competing areas such as roads and transport. This is why, in the upcoming budget, Shelter Scotland is urging the Scottish Government to invest an extra 200 million in affordable housing – just 0.6 per cent of the total Scottish budget of 34 billion.

Scotland is leading the world in tackling homelessness with its forward thinking commitment to give everyone the right to a home by 2012. But to ensure people have not just the right, but the keys to a home as well, it is vital we build more homes.

That is why I have started 2010 hoping for a different year to the last one. A year when our political, business and community leaders leave behind the failures of 2009 and rise to the challenge of creating a better, fairer Scotland for the future. Now is the time.

• Gordon MacRae is head of external relations at Shelter Scotland.