Annual payment for Affordable Homes Supply programme and similar initiatives: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for the following information for the period 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2021;

1. The annual figures for the award (budget) and actual payments made by the Scottish Government to local authorities and / or local authority areas in Scotland for:
(i) the Affordable Homes Supply Programme and similar initiatives;
(ii) Council House delivery;
(iii) the support of private ownership.

2. Please include:
(i) the Resource Planning Assumption (RPA) figures for each local authority area for the same period;
(ii) a list of the local authorities / organisations / housing associations that benefitted from the funds
provided by the Scottish Government.

Response

Most of the information you have requested is already publicly available but we have collated it into tables which is attached. 

A comprehensive annual breakdown of approvals, site starts and completions by local authority and programme type, and a breakdown of expenditure, is made available each year in the published Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme Out-turn Reports. Out-turn reports can be accessed using the following link: https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housingsupply/. Out-turn reports are available covering all years from 2009-10 to 2019-20. The Out-turn report for 2020-21 is currently being finalised and will be available on the Scottish Government website shortly.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested. An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies because we intend to publish the 2020-21 Out-turn report within 12 weeks of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until then, rather than release this annually published information before the publication.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release and this will be met by our planned publication.

Under section 17 (1) of FOISA we do not have to provide information which is not available to us.

1(i). Attached is a table which contains the Resource Planning Assumptions (RPAs) and the actual spend for each Local Authority area through the AHSP from 2009-10 to 2019-20. It should be noted that for 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15 there were no single year RPAs so this information is not available. Figures for financial year 2020-21 will be included in the 2020-21 AHSP Out-Turn Report which is due to be published within 12 weeks of your request.

(ii) Attached is a table which contains the actual spend on council house delivery by Local Authority area from 2009-10 to 2019-20. It should be noted that for some years this spend will also be contained within the actual spend by Local Authority area which is covered in the AHSP RPA table mentioned above. There is no budget for council house spend for years other than 2014-15 and 2015-16. Those budget figures are contained within the annual out-turn reports for those years which are publically available. https://www.gov.scot/policies/more-homes/affordable-housing-supply/. Figures for financial year 2020-2021 will be included in the 2020-21 AHSP Out-Turn Report which is due to be published within 12 weeks of your request.

(iii) Attached is a table which shows the breakdown of funding for support for affordable homeownership within the Affordable Housing Supply Programme. These figures are not usually reported on by Local Authority area and in some instances the programme may have a national budget (Open Market Shared Equity) but they would not have a budget by Local Authority area. Where there was a national budget it will be contained within the annual Out-turn reports for that year which are publically available on the Scottish Government website. https://www.gov.scot/policies/morehomes/affordable-housing-supply/.

It should be noted that the spend figures for New Supply Shared Equity, Partnership Support for Regeneration (including Commonwealth Games Village), Grants for Rent and Owner Occupation and Improvements and Repair Grants may also be contained within the actual spend for those Local Authority areas.

Information on spend on Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) has not previously been reported by Local Authority area. In September 2017 we began using a new digital recording and reporting system and so for financial years prior to 2018-19 there was a different recording system in place. In migrating to the new system not all historic data was transferred and so it is not possible to provide the spend breakdown by Local Authority area.

For Open Market Shared Equity for years 2018-19 and 2019-20 we have split out, where known, the spend by Local Authority area. This is included in a table attached. The total spend in these years may differ from previously reported annual figures in Out-turn reports due to changes in settlement dates or other year to year adjustments. We are including a breakdown of spend by programme by Local Authority area in our 2020-21 AHSP Out-turn report, this will include OMSE and other homeownership programmes. Figures for financial year 2020-21 will be included in the 2020-21 AHSP Out-Turn Report which is due to be published within 12 weeks of your request.

2(i). As per the comment above I have included a table which contains the RPAs and the actual spend for each local authority through the AHSP from 2009-10 to 2019-20.It should be noted that for 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 there were no single year RPAs and so this information is not available.

(ii). Under section 25 (1) in FOISA we do not have to provide information which is already accessible to you. A list of the local authorities, organisations and housing associations that benefitted from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme is contained within the Grant Recipients section in the Out-turn reports for 2009-10 to 2019-20 which are all available on our website. https://www.gov.scot/policies/morehomes/affordable-housing-supply/.

For 2020-21 the information is contained within our 2020-21 AHSP Out-turn report which we intend to publish within the next 12 weeks. An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies because we intend to publish the 20-21 Out-turn report within 12 weeks of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this annually published information before the publication.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release and this will be met by our planned publication.

About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI202100255559 - Information released

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