10 Feb 2022
Scotland's Housing to 2040 Strategy
Housing to 2040 is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy. Its aim is for everyone in Scotland to have a safe, high-quality home that is affordable and meets their needs in the place they want to be.
- To achieve the aims of the strategy, 100,000 affordable homes need to be delivered by 2031/32 (50,000 by 2026/7), with at least 70% for social rent. The Government will work with local authorities, housing providers, landlords and the construction and house building sectors to achieve the strategy’s ambitions.
- The total investment needed will be £16 billion, supporting 12-14,000 jobs each year.
- Specific action will be taken to support housing development in rural areas, helping to stem rural depopulation and supporting communities to thrive.
- The Government will support a supply chain development action plan to build the strong local supply chains needed to decarbonise Scotland’s homes and benefit the economy.
- The planning system will shift to become more directive about the quality of homes, for example by guiding where new development should happen and how those developments can deliver more for new and existing communities.
- The Government will:
- publish a new Rented Sector Strategy, informed by tenants;
- bring forward a new Housing Bill early in the next Parliament to strengthen tenants’ rights;
- improve the housing rights of people experiencing domestic abuse
- It will deliver the actions set out in its Ending Homelessness Together action plan.
- It will legislate for, and implement the short-term lets licensing scheme, tackle the blight of empty homes and scale up opportunities for self-provided housing.
- All new homes delivered by registered social landlords and local authorities will be zero emissions by 2026. This will involve fitting zero emissions heating systems ahead of the 2024 regulations coming into force, making greater use of off-site construction and introducing a new business model for affordable home delivery.
- The Government will introduce legislation in the next Parliament to implement a new Housing Standard.
- It will also bring digital connectivity to homes by working with social housing providers to deliver digital connections in new social homes.
- It will introduce new buildings standards from 2025/6 to underpin the new Scottish Accessible Homes Standard to future-proof new homes for lifelong accessibility.
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