Housing Bill
The Scottish Government is committed to safeguarding social housing for future generations. Around one in four Scottish households lives in social housing that provides a secure and sustainable alternative to home ownership for over 600,000 households across the country.
The Housing (Scotland) Bill will do this by reforming Right to Buy and modernising regulation to improve value for tenants and taxpayers.
The Bill will be introduced in early 2010.
Right to Buy
- Half a million homes have been sold in Scotland since RTB was introduced
- Reforms should allow between 10,000 and 18,000 homes to be retained over 10 years
- Sales receipts will be reduced which could affect landlords' capacity for investment
- Against this, properties will remain available to rent; and landlords will retain the rental income for properties that otherwise would have been sold
- The Scottish Government is investing £1.5 billion in affordable housing over three years: a record £644 million this year and £50 million to kick-start a new generation of council house building - supporting 3,000 jobs and delivering around 2,000 new affordable homes. The reforms to RTB will support these measures
A Social Housing Charter and a modernised Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR)
- Will safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and other service users
- The Charter will set the outcomes that social landlords must deliver for their tenants
- Modernised regulation will allow the SHR to target its activities at those landlords who are failing to deliver value for tenants.
Summary of Issue
- To end the Right to Buy for new supply social housing
- To separate standard setting and regulation of social housing
- To provide the Scottish Housing Regulator with a statutory objective of safeguarding and promoting the interests of current and future tenants
- The Bill may also include provisions on private housing to assist local authorities to enforce existing legislation more effectively
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