Homes for all

Failing to build new homes has had significant social and economic consequences for our country. Only by increasing supply across all types of tenure will we be able to unblock the housing system and deliver the secure homes that Scots need. To kickstart housebuilding across Scotland we will:

• Deliver 125,000 new homes by 2031, across all tenures. We will ramp up supply over the Parliament, building 30,000 new houses in year five.

• Create a dedicated Housing Bank within the Scottish National Investment Bank, to direct investment into homebuilding with low cost loans, and funding to regenerate land, scale up offsite manufacturing, and support new housing cooperatives and mid-market rent developments.

• Establish Housing Development Trusts to act as lead developer for each region, with responsibility for delivering affordable housing targets, and powers to leverage assets to attract finance and create their own construction companies to get houses built.

• Train the construction workforce needed to build homes, prioritising construction skills in our new apprenticeships, and within new Skills Accelerators so that each region has the workers needed to deliver local housing targets.

Slow and complex planning is also holding up housebuilding and preventing a pipeline of developments being established. Scottish Labour will overhaul planning to unlock land and get much needed projects approved by:

• Treating housing as critical national infrastructure, making greater use of zonal planning to pre-approve projects and create attractive places for people to live with access to local facilities and services, such as health and education.

• Reintroducing the presumption in favour of sustainable development, reforming NPF4 to ensure it supports delivery of our new housing target.

• Increasing the supply of land for housebuilding, identifying potential “grey belt” sites where development would not impact the aims of the green belt.

• Review regulation that adds costs to housing developments, considering how standardisation of building regulations and requirements could help deliver projects at greater scale while producing high quality and efficient homes for Scots.

• Establishing fit for purpose local housebuilding targets, ensuring that local authorities have housing plans that will deliver our national target and meet local housing needs.d incomes and help lift children out of poverty.

As well as increasing supply, we need to ensure people can access the new homes we want to deliver. Scottish Labour is determined to fix the broken housing market so that thousands of people are no longer priced out of homes in the places they want or need to live. We will:

• Build at least 52,300 affordable homes within our overall target, including more council and social homes, helping to drive down housing waiting lists and increasing the availability of low-cost housing.

• Increase the supply of mid-market rent housing, ensuring public finance can be recycled back into more homes and saving tenants an average of £2,700 a year off market rents.

• Establish a strategy for the private rented sector, recognising the role it plays in meeting housing need and working in partnership to drive up standards and experiences for tenants

• Review accessible housing plans, to ensure disabled households are properly prioritised for accessible homes and that national housing supply is future proofed to meet the needs of an ageing population.

• Protect affordable home ownership discounts, so that future buyers can also benefit from market discounts and affordable housing stock is not reduced when the initial buyers sell.

Rural Scotland feels the effects of the housing emergency acutely. A lack of homes exacerbates depopulation and holds back economic growth as businesses struggle to find housing for their workforce. Scottish Labour is determined to boost the supply of affordable homes in rural areas by:

• Consolidating rural housing funds, to maximise impact. We will explore options to expand eligibility, to increase uptake, and support employer-led initiatives to deliver rural homes where they are needed.

• Ensuring 10 per cent of new homes are built in genuinely rural areas, reviewing the classification of rural housebuilding so rural housing data and targets are adequately capturing the reality in rural areas.

• Reviewing the Croft House Grant Scheme, ensuring it supports delivery of the quality homes that crofting communities need.

• Expanding the use of rural housing burdens, to allow communities to buy back homes when they come up for sale and protect rural housing stock by preventing homes being sold as second homes.

• Working with rural employers and local authorities, to crowd in funding and fast-track developments that build housing to attract and retain rural workforces, support job creation and provide the necessary homes for key workers.

Scottish Labour believe that owning your own home should not be the privilege of the wealthy or those who can rely on their families for financial support. To help people who aspire to own their own home we will:

• Help renters to save for a deposit, setting aside more than 5,000 new mid-market rent homes for working people who want to save for their own home.

• Reducing the amount of tax paid by first time home buyers, increasing the LBTT relief threshold to £200,000 to save first time buyers up to £1,100 off the cost of buying a home and ensuring 40 per cent pay nothing. The costs of this will be partly offset by increasing the rate of LBTT paid by non-UK residents.

• Tackle the scale of empty and second homes, to make the most of existing housing stock by closing tax loopholes, supporting councils to buy neglected and empty properties that blight neighbourhoods, and introducing compulsory sale and rental order powers

• Establish a £1 homes scheme, bringing derelict homes back into use by selling them to homeowners who are committed to turning them back into homes that are lived in and loved.

Scottish Labour is determined to end the status quo that allows rough sleeping to increase and leaves thousands of families without a home to call their own. We will work towards ending homelessness by 2040 by:

• Expanding modular home pilots, as an alternative to expensive and unsuitable temporary accommodation, boosting the supply of quality housing in the areas most in need and ensuring families have safe, warm place to live while they wait for a permanent home.

• Prioritising prevention, ensuring a reformed Scottish Welfare Fund is directed towards measures that help people to maintain tenancies and avoid homelessness in the first place.

• Eradicating rough sleeping, with localised targets and interventions in high prevalence areas, and improved support for housing first schemes.

• Creating an Ending Homelessness Unit, to give national leadership, working cross-government to test and roll out successful interventions that deliver on our national objective to end homelessness by 2040.

Safe, well-maintained homes are essential to our overall quality of life. No matter where or in what type of tenure people live, they should have homes that are safe, warm, and comfortable. Scottish Labour will improve the quality of Scotland’s existing housing stock by:

• Granting homeowners more control over factoring, legislating more transparency over pricing and higher penalties including removal from the property factor register when factors breach their obligations. Our reforms will make it easier for residents to end factoring contracts or set up factoring cooperatives.

• Improving tenement maintenance arrangements, expediting progress on reform recommendations.

• Speeding up cladding remediation, expediating a workable “Responsible Developers’ Scheme”, reviewing the Building Safety Levy, and setting clear targets and legal requirements for delivery of remediation.

• Protect social tenants from damp and mould, by fully implementing Awaab’s Law for Scotland.

• Widen eligibility for energy-efficiency support, dropping the age threshold for the Warmer Homes Scotland scheme to 70 and increasing rural grant uplifts by £500.