This is one of two reports seeking to reinvigorate complementary and critical parts of the Housing to 2040 Scottish housing strategy. This report focuses on the affordable housing supply programme. The second report will examine the reform of devolved housing taxes.

Housing to 2040 was the product of three years of inclusive consultation with the housing sector in Scotland. It produced an ambitious and comprehensive programme of housing reforms over 20 years and more, geared to meeting affordable housing need, to raise standards and rights across the housing system, to pilot housing’s contribution to meeting net zero, to end homelessness, and much more.. At its heart were fundamental principles: implementing a well-functioning housing system, progressively realising the human right to adequate housing, and reducing housing’s role as a store of wealth and as a speculative asset. Housing to 2040 was also closely aligned to fundamental purposes of public policy: UN sustainable development goals, reducing child poverty, and inclusive economic prosperity.

These ambitions and the scope of the strategy as an inter-departmental cross-government approach were widely welcomed, though the pace of intervention and the lack of detail on implementation, co-ordination, monitoring and calibration were concerns from the outset . Unfortunately, work to progress this programme has proven susceptible to external shocks (Covid-19 and global inflation) and internal factors (such as significant budgetary reversals in 2023-24 and 2024-25, but also the unanticipated impacts of government policy).
Recognition of the severity of the problem is reflected in 12 local authorities and now the Scottish Government describing the situation as a housing emergency . Most observers would agree that the Housing to 2040 strategy is in significant difficulty, and with it the ambitious goals to elevate the housing system so that it can make a sustainable long-term contribution to prosperity, meeting housing need, and reducing poverty and inequality.