Local housing emergency declared in East Renfrewshire

Published 12 September 2024

Over recent years, we've seen a significant increase in homeless applications, which has had an impact on both the demand for services and how services are being delivered. Since 2018, homeless applications have jumped by 53%, in comparison to just a 10% increase Scotland-wide. As it stands, there are 350 households accepted as homeless and awaiting an offer of accommodation, and almost 200 households in temporary accommodation, including those in bed and breakfast.

The emergency has been declared despite us delivering more than 470 new-build homes since 2018, which includes bringing forward the provision of 105 new properties in Maidenhill this year.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) stated that several Scottish Councils are facing "systemic failure" of their homelessness services and this includes East Renfrewshire. The main issue for the SHR is the use of hotel accommodation, which is deemed as unsuitable in most circumstances, and an absence of sufficient suitable alternative accommodation.

East Renfrewshire is not unique in facing these challenges and will be the twelfth local authority to declare a housing emergency, as well as the Scottish Government who did so in May this year. However the local housing market makes it challenging to respond to this increased and sustained demand. The area has very high owner-occupation levels and the smallest percentage of social housing in mainland Scotland; only 11.4% of homes in East Renfrewshire make up social housing stock (approximately 4,200 homes), whereas the Scottish average is 22.9%. Furthermore, the number of Council homes becoming available for new tenants, through people moving out for example, has reduced over the past five years from around 260 to 190 homes per year. This is approximately half of the typical rate elsewhere in Scotland, further exacerbating the challenges.

We've been anticipating this emergency and over the past few years has implemented a number of actions to respond and mitigate the impact of this issue including:

• Doubling the provision of temporary accommodation from re-designation of some of our own permanent general needs stock from around 60 units in 2019/20 to over 130 units currently in use.
• Increasing the percentage of lets to homeless households to 70% for existing stock and 40% for new build accommodation.
• Reviewed existing agreements with local Registered Social Landlords.
• Reviewing internal process to focus on a prevention approach.

Declaring the local emergency was unanimously agreed by Councillors at a meeting of the full council on Wednesday 11 September.

Housing and Environment Convener, Councillor Danny Devlin, said: 'Declaring a housing emergency isn't a decision we've taken lightly. The increase in homelessness over the past five years has continued and has grown at significantly higher rates than the national average. The situation is acerbated here in East Renfrewshire as it remains an extremely popular place to live and the local housing market is not equipped to deal with this increase in demand.

'We've actions in place to work towards mitigating the pressures and will continue to work with partners to prioritise actions and develop plans to tackle the crisis over the coming months and years.'

The proposed Local Housing Strategy 2024-2029 will be presented to Cabinet in October and while it details actions for the next five years, it isn't enough to mitigate the immediate emergency. However it commits to a continuation of working with partners to prevent homeless and overall housing need by providing effective support and information and advice, and to delivering a minimum of 45 additional affordable homes per year on average over 5 years.

Furthermore, an additional £1million has been made available from Council capital reserves and it is proposed that this could now be used to purchase additional housing units and/or new builds.

Council Leader Owen O'Donnell added: 'This emergency situation has been growing over recent years and our declaration is now unavoidable. While we've made progress in increasing our housing stock through nearly 480 new build properties, it's clear we can't build our way out of this problem and that to have a substantial and systemic impact and to clear the backlog of presenting cases, significant investment in grant funding and associated borrowing across all tenures will be required.

'I'd like to thank staff within our Housing Service for their ongoing efforts in these difficult circumstances. Everyone deserves a place to call home and I want to assure our local community that we'll do everything within our powers to mitigate the impacts on our ability to provide affordable and safe homes.'

The Leader has also written to the First Minister expressing his disappointment that as part of the programme for Government announced on 4 September, there was no explicit reversal of the £200m previously removed from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.

CEO of Barrhead Housing Lorna Wilson added: 'Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing across the country is one of the greatest challenges of our time.  East Renfrewshire faces a unique set of pressures and Barrhead Housing is absolutely committed to working closely and effectively with the council, Scottish Government and other partners to provide high-quality, energy- efficient modern homes to everyone who needs them.'

Read the full report.