Scotland sees increase in social housing allocations to homeless people

The country’s government formally declared a “national housing emergency” in May 2024.

The SHR report showed that, in the year to the end of March 2025, social landlords let 23,813 homes to people assessed as homeless by local authorities. This was up by 4.9 per cent from 2023-24.

Overall, Scottish social landlords provided 635,433 homes to rent, a rise of 0.8 per cent from the previous year. The number of homes let by local authorities increased by 2,236, while the number of registered social landlord (RSL) homes increased by 2,464.

“The national housing emergency declared by the Scottish government has intensified the focus on housing supply, including the number of empty homes,” the SHR said.

In 2024-25, homes were, on average, empty for 61 days, up from four days in the previous year. Social landlords lost £39.8m in rent from homes being empty during the year, a fall of £1.1m from 2023-24, representing 1.3 per cent of total rent due. Total rent arrears fell from 6.7 to 6.2 per cent.

“Some landlords, particularly local authorities, told us that they have had an increased focus on reducing the number of long-term voids within their housing stock by bringing these homes back into use,” the SHR said.

“This has, in turn, increased their reported figures on the average time taken to re-let properties.”

Landlord performance and tenant satisfaction

The SHR’s report also showed that landlords performed well against the charter, despite the ongoing challenges they and their tenants and service users face.

Tenant satisfaction remained the same as the previous year, at 87 per cent. For both local authorities and RSLs, the figures remained the same, at 81 and 88 per cent, respectively.

Tenant satisfaction with the quality of their homes improved slightly, from 84 to 85 per cent. It remained at 79 per cent among local authority tenants and increased one percentage point, to 86 per cent, among RSL tenants.

In addition, the percentage of tenants satisfied with their landlord’s repairs service remained the same, at 87 per cent.

The number of homes that met the Scottish Housing Quality Standard rose for the third consecutive year, from 530,378 in 2023-24 to 551,540 last year. In addition, the percentage that were compliant rose from 84 to 87 per cent.

Garry Coutts, chair of the SHR, said: “We know that 2024-25 was another difficult year for social landlords, their tenants and other service users. Economic uncertainty and volatility over the last few years has meant many tenants have faced financial hardship, and has increased pressure on social landlords.

“Today’s report shows that, despite this difficult environment, landlords have maintained or improved performance against most of the charter outcomes and standards. This includes areas that matter most to tenants, such as housing quality levels increasing, tenant satisfaction improving, and landlords achieving quicker response times for emergency repairs.

“Challenges remain, particularly the pressure on local authorities’ homelessness services. Systemic failure that the regulator identified last year continues to impact the delivery of these services in some areas, with others at heightened risk of being impacted. We will continue to engage with every local authority and other stakeholders who have an interest in and responsibility to tackle the growing problem of homelessness.”

Carolyn Lochhead, director of external affairs at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, said the figures from the Scottish Social Housing Charter “demonstrate once again the excellent work” conducted by housing associations.

She highlighted “high satisfaction figures” from tenants, underlining “the exceptional work” of the group’s members. Ms Lochhead cited figures showing that 88 per cent of tenants said they were satisfied with their homes, 82 per cent believed their rent was value for money and 89 per cent were satisfied with their opportunities to participate in their landlord’s decision-making.

She also cited that the charter has shown an increase in tenants satisfied with the quality of their homes, from 84 to 85 per cent, while housing associations were dealing with emergency repairs quicker. The average time taken by RSLs to complete these repairs reduced from 3.6 to 3.2 hours.

“It’s a reminder that Scotland’s housing associations play a vital role in providing warm, secure and affordable rented homes, which are crucial to tackling poverty and delivering a fairer and more equal country,” Ms Lochhead said.