Housing to 2040: a conversation

We have an ageing population and people are living longer

This means that demands on health and social care will increase in the future. We want to think about our different  housing options and promote greater adaptability to allow us to live independently at home for longer, reducing that demand.

The number of households is growing and more people are living alone

The number of households in Scotland is projected to increase and one person households are set to become the most common household type. This means we need to think strategically about how we design and build new homes and where, and how we can make the best use of our existing stock.

We need to mitigate the impact of climate change

We must  ensure our homes are energy efficient and are able to adapt to the effects of climate change We’ve set out the actions we’ll take to reduce emissions from our homes in our Climate Change Plan and our Energy Efficient Scotland route map. We have also introduced a Climate Change Bill to strengthen our greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

We must act on homelessness

Nobody should be without a safe, warm place they can call home - that is why we are working hard to prevent homelessness in Scotland. We have published our Ending Homelessness and Rough Sleeping action plan to transform temporary accommodation and put an end to rough sleeping and homelessness.

We want to tackle child poverty

The Scottish Government is committed to ending child poverty and the housing system can help us to do this. We want to increase housing affordability and lower running costs to reduce poverty for households with children.

We need to manage the impact of Brexit and the UK Government’s welfare reforms

Brexit will have consequences for both housing supply and demand.  The UK Government’s welfare reforms have reduced the support it provides - the Scottish Government works to mitigate this, but this isn’t sustainable in the long term.