The Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) comprises a range of funding mechanisms to enable affordable housing providers to deliver homes for social rent, mid-market rent, and low-cost home ownership in communities across Scotland to support local authorities’ Local Housing Strategies.
The Committee held sessions on this programme in the early part of the session to see how effective it was in delivering affordable homes to meet Scotland’s housing needs. This was also the focus of the Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny in 2022.
The Committee has expressed concerns about the viability of the affordable housing supply programme in the context of the increasing costs associated with house building.
The Committee also expressed concern about the capacity for social landlords to deliver new affordable homes whilst also delivering on retrofitting and maintaining existing stock.
The Committee also pressed the Scottish Government to progress work on alternative financing models to support the delivery of affordable homes.
Meetings
The Committee took evidence on this issue as part of its pre-budget scrutiny at its meetings on
The Committee then wrote to the Scottish Government reflecting on the evidence taken on the affordable housing supply programme.
The Scottish Government responded as follows.
Correspondence from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government
The Committee considered the Scottish Government’s response with the former Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government at its meeting on 17 January 2023.
The Committee is continuing to look at this issue in the context of its scrutiny of Housing to 2040.
The review of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme (AHSP) has been brought forward from 2026-27 and will be reporting to Ministers this summer. The Committee will consider that report.