Social housing provider grants to facilitate housing adaptions: FOI release

Information requested

In regard to FOI reference FOI/202200317191, could you provide me with the most current information available?

For reference, FOI 202200317191, asked for:

1. How much have the Scottish Government invested in grants to social housing providers to facilitate housing adaptions (an adaption can be understood as a ramp, hand rail, flashing doorbell, downstairs bathroom and/or otherwise) for disabled people (inclusive of those with physical, learning and/or mental disabilities) in the last three financial years and what is the current spending estimated/budgeted to be in 2022/23?

2. Can you please detail the grants provided to individual RSLs to facilitate housing adaptation for disabled people in the last three financial years and any current budgets or grants provided in the 2022/23 financial year?

Response

In relation to question 1, update on funding of housing adaptations to Registered Social Landlords:

Funding of housing adaptations for Registered Social Landlords and the current budget

Years	Scottish Government Funding
2022-2023	16.616m
2023-2024	17.166m
2024-2025	8.245m

In relation to grants to local authorities, the vast majority of funding from the Scottish Government is provided by means of a block grant to local authorities. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them.

It is for each individual local authority to decide how best to allocate this money, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities, including towards home adaptations for disabled people.

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Scottish Government’s website on local authority settlement figures via the following link: Local government finance circulars - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. Information has been provided on the Local Government Finance Settlement Amount however you may wish to contact each local authority directly so they can confirm how much they have spent on housing adaptations. The following link provides details of the Scottish Councils so you can access the website of each council and might be useful if you want to contact any council directly: Councils | COSLA This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested.

In relation to question 2, please see attached spreadsheet which contains updated figures on the grants provided to individual RSLs to facilitate housing adaptations for disabled people. The current grant allocation for 2024/25 is £8.245m and we are currently assessing the funding bids received and funding awards will be issued to individual RSLs in due course.

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.

FOI 202400421178 - Information released - Annex

File type

Excel document

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21.7 kB