Based on research commissioned by Shelter Scotland and reported in Scottish Housing News today:
‘The Scottish Government’s target of 50,000 affordable homes is within reach over the period of this parliament, according to a first-of-its-kind independent report….The report says the £3 billion affordable housing programme is the biggest undertaken since the 1970s and is set to deliver a net increase of 25,000 new homes to Scotland’s social housing stock (after demolitions or other losses are included). This contrasts with a predicted net loss of 120,000 council homes in England, where tenants still have a right-to-buy their homes.’
This report reinforces the earlier statement by the Scottish Government in Scottish Housing News on 13th February 2018:
‘Social housing in Scotland continues to be more affordable than England or Wales, which is vital at a time when UK government welfare cuts are having a devastating impact on people across the country. We are increasing funding for discretionary housing payments – which significantly benefit those living in the social housing sector – by 5%, to over £60 million in 2018/19. That will enable us to continue mitigating the bedroom tax and provide a lifeline for those who need extra help. Since 2007 we have delivered nearly 71,000 affordable homes, with almost 70% of those being for social rent. Over this Parliament we have a commitment to deliver 50,000 affordable homes, including 35,000 for social rent. We have put in place a number of measures to deliver that, in addition to ending the right to buy, keeping existing social housing stock in the sector and protecting it for future generations.’
http://www.scottishhousingnews.com/19825/marginal-increase-number-social-housing-tenants-scotland/
Yet another reminder that we are different enough to want to run our own show. Remember these?
8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?
SNP moves to finally put an end to foxes’agony being ripped apart by hounds as the English Tories plan a return to the unspeakable business. Different again?
Racial hate crimes increase by 33% in England & Wales while falling by 10% in Scotland: Who says we’re not different?
Scotland takes nearly 26% of Syrian refugees settled in UK with only 8% of the UK population
For more, just search the blog for ‘different’.
Talking-up Scotland 
Irony warning!
No matter how much research you do, John, on the subject of National differences, you just have to be getting it wrong. Didn’t I hear with my own ears on the BBC this morning that Theresa is coming to Aberdeen later this week to assure her ‘faithful’ that anywhere in the UK we are all the same. As proof positive she is going to admit that she has a Scotch granny.
Honest, I didn’t make this up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really? Oh well add that to my three English aunties and the ba’s clearly on the slates for my strategy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think my Spanish great-great grandmother did for my chances too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are massively different collective attitudes towards caring within the various countries of the UK.
We are not the same.
We are similar, but different.
We need to consider letting England leave the UK, or perhaps some similar alternative.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good thinking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The sooner Governments have the courage to tackle the debilitating and distorting effect property prices have on the economy the better. It is all smoke and mirrors stuff. The flat in which my wife and I live and in which we raised our family now has a market value of around 50 times what we paid for it over 40 years ago. Are we 50 times better off? NAW! We certainly are better off compared to when we bought the flat but that is after two lifetimes of employment. If we were to sell the flat, we would almost certainly have to pay a similar cost to buy somewhere else to stay, meet the various conveyancing costs and the costs of some furnishing and decoration. So, as far as the two of us are concerned, our disposable income and savings would be much as before.
We really have to begin to change the way the economy is distorted.
Politically, it will not be easy because so many people have a stake, albeit, an illusory one, in the ‘market’.
Bringing in more land reform, including taxing land, especially land which is being left undeveloped to rig the market, should begin to reduce or stabilise house prices. By building more social housing, the supply will be increased and, with land being taxed in clever ways, the price of land should become a lower proportion of the overall housing costs so that more money can be spent building better quality housing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes taxing property is the way but lacks support in the political elites.
LikeLike
It is not just the political elites: it is a lot of the public, neighbours, friends and relations. They are the people who make it difficult for politicians to enact change. They see it as an asset to pass on to their children.
For a lot of us, our house or flat is just about the only major thing any of us or our ancestors ever owned.
Although many of us we actually do own our home, an awful lot of people are struggling to pay off debt they incurred in the purchase, especially as many of the endowment mortgages never produced the kinds of returns they were supposed to when people were being enticed to buy and to buy at levels far too high for them to reasonably pay off, because of the ‘light touch’ regulation of, amongst others, Bodger Broon. So, there are a lot of people who feel they have to remain on the treadmill in the hope of paying off debt or of not saddling their children with their debt.
There has to be some attempt at debt cancellation – after all, the rentiers have squeezed huge sums from these borrowers. One way of reducing debt is by inflation, which in effect reduces the sum on which the punitive interest rates are paid. Of course, the financial elites will squeal about inflation and seek to convince many of the indebted people that it is bad for them, too.
It is also part of the smoke and mirrors of property Ponzi scheme speculation.
LikeLiked by 1 person