Commenting on the proposals to set up a new national housing agency, announced by the Scottish Government yesterday (22 January), GWSF Chair John Hamilton said:
“‘The former national housing agency Scottish Homes and then Communities Scotland brought a dedicated housing focus, experience and expertise built up over a substantial period, seeking to address a wide range of housing needs across communities in our cities, towns and rural areas. It seems likely that the proposed new agency may have a somewhat narrower focus.
“No-one can argue against speeding up housing delivery, but experience suggests we need to be realistic and proportionate about what the FM refers to as ‘ramping up efficiencies’. New build is a tricky business, sites can be challenging, and then you have the planners.
“Homes need to be rooted in the communities people want to live in. Housing need isn’t going to be better met just by larger providers building larger scale developments – we’ve been there before, more than once, and efforts to achieve economies of scale have never delivered what was promised. We have existing models which work, so why not just better support these if we’re wanting to escape the housing emergency?
“And our members don’t have any issues getting private finance for social housing, so we’ll assume for now that the reported need to make greater use of private finance applies to other provision, including the suggestion of initiatives to help younger people buy or rent.”
