MSPs challenge government to address housing need for older and disabled people

In a letter to minister for local government, housing and planning, Kevin Stewart MSP, the Scottish Parliament’s local government and communities committee raised concerns of a growing funding gap for adaptation work and that disabled tenants of housing associations continue to be more likely to be disadvantaged.

In its report on the 2018-19 draft budget, the committee had previously reported that stakeholders felt progress in achieving a “tenure-neutral” approach, as recommended by the independent Adaptations Working Group in 2012, had been slow despite the Scottish Government having accepted the group’s main findings, and this was repeated in its own evidence-taking this year. Tenants of registered social landlords (RSLs) continue to be more likely to be disadvantaged, it added.

In this year’s evidence, the committee again noted stakeholders’ view that enabling people with particular needs to live and, as far as possible, look after themselves at home tended to be more economical than alternatives.

Particularly in relation to RSLs, the current system therefore does not always enable effective preventative spending, it said.

The letter reads: “The amount that the Scottish Government provide annually to fund adaptations by RSLs has, for some years, been static at around £10 million. Evidence to the committee indicated that the gap between this amount and the sum total of claims made annually on it has been steadily growing, standing this year at £6.9m. The committee notes that the Scottish Government deals with this gap by only part-funding more costly applications. In turn, this tends to lead to delays in these projects, as RSLs suspend work once all funds are used up and wait for the next financial year to re-bid.”

Whilst ways could sometimes be found to leverage more funding into the system, including for instance through increased engagement with charities, witnesses agreed there were no easy or obvious solutions to the growing funding gap.

The committee said it was cautioned that increasing rent to absorb adaptation costs could impact disproportionately on disabled tenants of RSLs.

Inconsistency also exists in terms of how long it can take for an adaptation to be completed, with factors such as where the applicant lives or what sort of housing tenure they have seemingly relevant, the committee said.

The letter adds: “Again, it appears to be tenants of RLS who are the most disadvantaged, with those in rural areas most disadvantaged of all.”

Despite good practice by landlords or integration joint boards (IJBs), the committee said witnesses also spoke to the frustrations of some tenants having to wait weeks or months between initial approval of an adaptation and work getting underway, and of confusion over who “owns” a project in the event of things not working out.

In view of the evidence; the committee invited responses on the following:

Committee convener James Dornan MSP said: “A strong theme from our evidence was that older or disabled tenants of housing associations should not be disadvantaged if they require their house to be adapted. There is a growing funding gap for work on houses in this sector and the committee is asking the Scottish Government to consider whether this should be increased in their upcoming budget.”