Annual report highlights affordable housing’s role in tackling child poverty

The investment is detailed in an annual progress report which highlights key actions to tackle child poverty including the delivery of 6,045 affordable homes, with two thirds for social rent.

Highlighting the importance of ensuring access to warm and affordable homes, the report states: “Access to a warm, safe and affordable home is fundamental to effectively tackling child poverty in Scotland. As families continued to face challenges in meeting the cost of rents and energy, due to the ongoing impacts of the cost of living crisis, we continued to provide support through an emergency rent cap (in place until 31 March 2024) and by tripling investment in the Fuel Insecurity Fund for 2023-24, alongside wider action to deliver more affordable homes and to tackle homelessness in Scotland.

“Through the recently introduced Housing (Scotland) Bill, we have brought forward ambitious measures to strengthen protections for tenants in the longer term. We will continue to work with the full range of stakeholders to ensure the powers in the Bill, if passed by Parliament, will be implemented in a way which ensures these reforms strike the best balance for Scotland to further progress toward the ambitions set out in Housing to 2040.”

A summary of the housing-related impact that the child poverty investment has had includes:

• Between April and December 2023, an estimated 2,015 households with children were helped into affordable housing through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.
• In the same period, we delivered 6,045 affordable homes through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, of which 4,358 were for social rent. We also approved 3,167 and started 3,412 affordable homes.
• It is estimated that keeping social rents substantially lower than market rents benefits approximately 140,000 children in poverty each year.
• Our £30 million Fuel Insecurity Fund at the height of the energy bills crisis is estimated to have supported up to 150,000 households, many including families with children.
• The eligibility criteria for Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) was widened in April 2023 to enable 225,000 more households to be eligible for the scheme. For the year 2023-24, phase one of WHS completed installations of energy efficiency and heating upgrades in 3,800 homes, for WHS phase two (October to April) 1,173 homes were supported. The average fuel bill savings for households was in the region of £580 per year for households in phase two.
• The Warmer Homes Scotland end of year report for 2022-23 shows around 10% of applications to the scheme had ‘Child under 16-qualifying benefits’ as their lead eligibility criteria.
• Over 450,000 households received support through Council Tax Reduction (CTR), saving recipients on average over £800 a year. Latest estimates suggest 98,000 households with child dependents received CTR as of March 2023.

Other action to tackle child poverty includes:

• Awarding almost £430 million to families through the Scottish Child Payment, supporting more than 329,000 children as of 31 March 2024
• Widening eligibility for Best Start Foods, the benefit which helps low-income families access nutritious food, so thousands more children and pregnant women can benefit
• Supporting around 4,400 children through continued work to develop a system of school age childcare and continuing to provide 1140 hours of funded childcare for all eligible children
• Providing free bus travel to over 2.3 million people, with 727,000 children and young people registered as of March 2024

Cabinet secretary for communities, social security and equalities, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said: “Eradicating child poverty is the First Minister’s top priority and the actions we are taking are making a difference. Modelling published in February estimates that our policies will keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty this year.

“Over the last year we have continued to provide immediate support to families through investment in the likes of our ‘game-changing’ Scottish Child Payment, and by mitigating the Benefit Cap as fully as possible within the scope of devolved powers.

“We have set out, through our Building a New Scotland series, how we would deliver differently in an independent Scotland. Only with the full economic and fiscal powers of an independent nation can we use all of the levers other governments have to tackle inequalities, and we will continue to make this case. However, this will not stop us from taking all the action we can towards our goal now.”