Affordable housing target remains ‘important’ despite cut, says Robison

Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said the Government would look to finance from the private sector to supplement housebuilding.

The Scottish Government’s affordable housing target remains “important”, the Deputy First Minister has said, despite a more than £200 million cut to the housing budget.

Shona Robison – who also serves as the country’s Finance Secretary – announced her first budget in the role on Tuesday.

The document – which was published against the backdrop of a £1.5 billion black hole in the country’s finances – increased taxes, including the creation of a new tax bracket for higher earners.

But the housing budget was slashed from £738.3 million last year to £533.2 million, including a cut of £188.8 million to the housebuilding budget.

The Scottish Government has a target of building 110,000 new affordable homes by 2032, while three councils have declared a housing emergency.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland on Wednesday, the Deputy First Minister said the target was still “important”, but there would have to be different methods of funding used to fulfil it.

“A 10% cut to our capital budget over the next five years is having an impact on our capital programmes,” she said.

“What we had to prioritise next year was our legal and contractual commitments, things that were already in train.”

She added: “What we’re doing, and the work we’re doing with the housing minister, is to look at how we can lever in innovative finance.

“Work is well advanced on that to make sure that working with private sector organisations we can lever in additional finance because we recognise that affordable housing is a key anti-poverty measure and we want to be able to deliver on our commitments, but we’ll have to do that in a different way.”

Ms Robison also announced councils will receive £144 million to freeze council tax, but local authority body Cosla said that funding would need to be closer to £300 million.

In its initial reaction to the budget, the body said the funding settlement – which it totalled £13.2 billion – amounted to a cut of £251 million.

Ms Robison, however, said the funding was fair.

“They are getting an increasing share of the overall budget, something that they have asked for,” she said.

“And of course on capital, yes, capital is difficult, we’ve got a 10% cut to our capital budget over the next five years, so nowhere in the public sector can be immune from the impact of that capital budget reduction that we are having to manage.”

Ms Robison said the settlement – which she claimed totalled more than £14 billion for the next year – was “not a bad offer”.