New housing agency must get the foundations right

More Homes Scotland sounds promising but it must embrace the private sector to succeed, writes David J Alexander.

The announcement by First Minister John Swinney that his government is to establish a new national housing agency is welcome. The new body – called More Homes Scotland – aims to address several key areas including large-scale affordable housing projects; rural and island housing; acquiring, preparing and releasing land; enabling infrastructure work to unlock stalled sites; and closer working with the Scottish National Investment Bank to make best use of private finance.

It has the laudable aim to “focus on simplicity, scale and speed to enable the delivery of housing of all types, helping to meet housing need across Scotland”.

The First Minister said: “We recognise the difficulty that many Scots – in particular young Scots - have finding a home they can afford to rent or buy.”

“A new national agency will mean less duplication, greater expertise, increased efficiencies, and making our substantial investment go further. It will also provide enhanced support to our local authority partners, and we will work in partnership with the Scottish National Investment Bank to attract more commercial investment.”

“It is a new body that will offer simplicity, scale and speed - boosting delivery, and maximising savings, as part of our commitment to a decade of public sector modernisation and reform.”

However, there are some caveats. The new body is not expected to start operating until 2027-28 and won’t be fully functional until 2028-29. This will be four years after the housing emergency was first declared and indicates a less than urgent approach to current housing needs.

The involvement of the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and local authorities and the Scottish National Investment Bank is obviously required but the reference to “public sector modernisation” is potentially concerning. For this organisation to work it must embrace the private sector – not just as a source of finance but also for advice and guidance – to ensure that an efficient, properly functioning housing sector can be delivered over the next decade.

That means encouraging housebuilding, working alongside the private rented sector (PRS) and substantially increasing the volume of social housing.

The sensible, and constructive approach, would be to create an advisory board comprising figures from all parts of the housing sector to ensure that a new era of greater housebuilding is created which meets the demands of homebuyers, private and social tenants and creates an environment that is welcoming to investors.

There must also be a framework which transcends the traditional electoral timescale so that More Homes Scotland will be delivering housing over decades rather than five-year cycles.

As part of the preparatory work prior to the organisation’s launch, it is crucial to generate data which asks all parts of the housing sector what actions they believe are required. A wide scale survey of local authorities, investors, landlords, tenants, agents, and housebuilders all providing their views and ideas on what is required is essential if the new organisation is to be properly informed of where we are and where we need to be. This initiative will be judged on its effective and timely delivery of more homes across all tenures to address Scotland’s current and future housing needs. While this is a positive start it will fail if it becomes simply another talking shop.