In September, East Renfrewshire Council became the 12th local authority in Scotland to declare a housing emergency after a significant increase in homeless applications impacted demand for services in the region. The emergency was declared despite delivering more than 470 new-build homes since 2018, which includes bringing forward the provision of 105 new properties in Maidenhill during 2024/25.

New national data published for the period September 2023 to September 2024 has shown a 4% decrease in applications in East Renfrewshire compared to a national increase of 2%. However, the numbers in temporary accommodation in East Renfrewshire at the end of September 2024 increased by 44% from the same period the year before, the highest increase in Scotland. This is compared to a national average of 6%.

The council has been working to respond to and mitigate the impact of increasing levels of homelessness. Ongoing work led by the housing team over the last six months includes:

• More than doubling the provision of temporary accommodation over last five years and increasing lets to homeless households for council housing and through partnership with Barrhead Housing.
• A £1 million housing acquisition fund, approved in September 2024, has resulted in six properties purchased. The fund has been topped up with a further £1m investment.
• Capital investment being made available to provide five further flats at Overlee House.
• An empty homes officer was appointed to target 124 long-term empty homes
• A land audit of all council-owned land, alongside a review of buildings owned by the council, to consider development and redevelopment opportunities for both additional temporary accommodation and also affordable and social housing development.
• A change to lettings targets was implemented, allocating more new homes to existing council tenants and increased the percentage allocation of homeless households for existing stock.
• A multi-partnership strategic group is in place to review services for homeless households. This includes ensuring that partners work together to prevent homelessness from occurring, wherever possible, including ensuring households receive the correct advice and service from all agencies involved.

Additionally, a strategic agreement between the council and Barrhead Housing will be launched next month. This five-year agreement details how, as a core partner, Barrhead Housing will support the aims of the Local Housing Strategy, including the prevention of homelessness and increase in affordable housing.

Convener for Housing and Environment, Councillor Danny Devlin said: “Whilst there has been a small reduction in homelessness and use of temporary accommodation, we continue to face a local housing emergency. However, I am pleased to see the positive actions undertaken by our Housing Service which will help us maximise new supply through a review of the local housing finance model, improve our preventions models through working with partners and, thanks to significant capital investment, increase the supply of temporary accommodation.

“I’d like to thank our Housing Service employees for their important work and assure East Renfrewshire residents that we’re committed to providing affordable and safe housing when it’s needed most.”

Read the report which went to Full Council here.