‘Build, baby, build’ to fix housing emergency, Government told

The Scottish Government has been urged to “build, baby, build” to tackle the housing emergency.

It has been just over a year since the Scottish Parliament declared a housing emergency, following a similar move from a number of local councils after record homelessness figures were released.

But despite the declaration and assertions from Government that they are working to fix the issue,  the most recent figures showed a further increase in the number of families in temporary accommodation, as well as the number of children.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Show, Sir Tom Hunter urged the Scottish Government to cut red tape, allowing more houses to be built to alleviate demand.

“There are plenty of things we can do today, tomorrow morning,” he said.

“Let’s solve the housing crisis, we can do it, we can absolutely do it.

“It’s very simple – build, baby, build, to take a phrase from across the pond.

“To solve the housing crisis, you need to build more houses, really.”

The Scottish Government’s housing policy, the millionaire said, was confusing to developers.

In response to the cost-of-living crisis, ministers implemented a rent freeze and eviction ban, which subsequently expired and was replaced by an effective cap, which limited rent rises to 6%.

Those protections expired last month and the Scottish Government is currently bringing its Housing (Scotland) Bill through Holyrood, which would allow local councils to put rent control zones in place, capping annual increases at one percentage point above the rate of inflation.

“Housing investors allocate their capital where they understand the policy,” Sir Tom said.

“I know of hundreds of millions of pounds that are sitting on the sidelines, not coming to Scotland because the investors go ‘I’m not quite sure what the Scottish Government’s policy is’.”

He added: “Sort the policy, sort it tomorrow and hundreds of millions of pounds will flow into Scotland.”

Sir Tom also criticised the planning system in Scotland, pointing to a report commissioned by his foundation, which found it took five times as long to get permissions for a warehouse in Scotland as it did in Singapore.

Speaking later in the same programme, Scotland’s Social Justice Secretary, who is also responsible for housing, said there is “not one solution to the housing emergency”.

“There are different challenges in the system,” she said.

“But let’s take the area we’ve just spoken about – house building.

“That’s exactly why we’ve got £768 million in the capital budget this year, it’s exactly why we’ve also looked at how we’ll spend that money.

“So, for example, because there’s a housing emergency, what money can we provide to local authorities that have got the greatest pressure and provide that quickly through acquiring homes rather than building homes.”

The minister went on to say that there are 164,000 homes in Scotland with planning permission that are not being built and that the Government was taking an “interventionist approach” to move things along.

“The Government’s not just sitting back, but we are involving ourselves in why things are not moving forward and providing investment or suggesting ways where we can move through,” she said.

But she added that action from the private sector was also required.

There has been progress in tackling the housing issue, she said, but the Government has not “made all the progress that we need”, the minister said.

The comments come as Scottish Labour have urged housing minister Paul McLennan to make a statement to Holyrood about the housing emergency.