Private rented sector will be part of the housing crisis solution

If you need clarity on a subject examining the numbers can be useful. Looking at the latest statistics for the housing stock by tenure in Scotland over the last 30 years provides insight into how we came to be in the current situation. This data reveals how the social housing sector, which once comprised a third of all Scottish housing stock, has been decimated over decades until it is almost 200,000 homes smaller now than it was in the early 1990s.

Between 1993 and 2023 the number of social housing homes in Scotland declined by 195,072, falling from 822,000 to 626,928. Over the same period the private rented sector (PRS) increased by 203,706, going from 154,000 to 357,706. In other words, the PRS has grown by almost exactly the same amount as the social housing sector has shrunk. It hasn’t, as is sometimes said, usurped social housing but has stepped in to fill the gap left by the loss of this housing.

The more recent record on social housing growth is equally as telling. Since the SNP took power in 2007 there has only been an increase of 19,737 social housing homes over the 18-year period, rising from 607,191 to 626,928. The PRS increased by 110,331 over the same period, increasing from 247,375 in 2007 to 357,707 in 2023. It is clear that without the growth of the private rented sector over the last 18 years the current housing emergency in Scotland would have been substantially worse. There would be fewer homes overall, waiting lists would be greater, and demand would be even more overwhelming than it already is.

What these statistics, published by the Scottish Government annually, highlight is the essential role that the PRS has played in maintaining a supply of homes for Scotland. The reality is that the private rented sector is not the problem it is a vital part of the solution.

Rather than be the cause of the housing emergency the PRS has actually been an increasingly important part of preventing the current situation becoming even worse. With the severe decline in the volume of social housing over the last 30 years the number of homes available would have been considerably fewer if the private sector had not intervened.

This is why it is more important than ever that decision-makers should recognise the vital role that the PRS has played and will continue to play in the coming decades if we are to have sufficient homes to house Scots in the future.

Social housing will always have a crucial role to play in offering homes for people, but it is equally true that the private rented sector has shown that it is an increasingly invaluable resource in the Scottish housing market. In any planning to meet future housing needs the private rented sector must be recognised for its integral role in providing housing and encouraged to invest and expand.

The only solution which will work to resolve the current housing emergency is to work with all parts of the housing sector – housebuilders, private landlords and investors, and the social housing sector – to ensure we have as varied, as flexible, and sufficient homes for people in the coming decades.