Ewan Aitken hope to see more homes being bough, more being built and better ways of funding projects between private and public partnerships
The leader of one of Scotland’s biggest homeless charities has welcomed a “tipping point” that will force the supply of thousands of Scots proper homes.
And he said a major return to public owned housing can secure the future for millions of families in future years. The Daily Record has told this week of an explosion in street sleeping and an over-reliance on shoddy temporary homes, which are trapping 10,000 children in “limbo”, unsure even of what school they might be attending in the next term.He said: “We don’t need to wait around for building projects that have stalled badly.
“Edinburgh alone is at least 25,000 houses short. Part of that was down to the economic crash, as the value of land dropped. “So you’ve got a pinch point caused by a government policy, which was to help renters out. I understand why they did it, but it’s an unintended consequence that it’s stopping housing associations from building homes.
“And we are paying the price of that right now - and it’s costing the state more money, year after year. He added: “When I was elected as a councillor in 1989 there was 4000 houses in my council ward but by the time I stepped down in 2012 there was only 800.“What we had previously were councils renting out homes at affordable rates - it’s usually around 55% of local housing allowance .“That means it’s costing far more than when the state owned the homes. The system is broken.”
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