The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work this Parliament in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. So the Committee has time to complete its work, it has agreed not to consider petitions submitted after 10 October.
The Committee will continue to meet but given the volume of petitions and agreed work programme it is unlikely that the Committee would be able to meaningfully progress work on petitions submitted after 10 October ahead of the election. Petitions lodged after this date will not fall when the Parliament is dissolved and will be for the successor committee to consider in the new session.
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Closed petition PE1959: Tackle Scotland’s affordable housing crisis
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to take action to improve the current housing crisis by:
Merging housing associations and local council housing; and
consider introducing a new right to buy scheme for council tenants.
Previous action taken
I have contacted the Scottish Government and received a response outlining their commitments to delivering affordable homes that are available for social rent.
Background information
I propose that the Scottish Government should consider the following steps to improve the current housing crisis:
Housing Associations are merged with Council Housing. This could help more council homes become available and would be a major, first step in battling what is, in some areas, a significant housing crisis. In fact, I suggest this would see 76,307 Council Homes being built by 2034.
Creation of a new right to buy scheme. This could be set up in a way which allows council tenants the opportunity to make one final payment of between £10,000 - £20,000 to buy their home from the council if they have lived in the property for 10 or more years.
Using the average rent prices in Scotland from 2020-21, which is £75.76 per week, and then adding on the £10,000 - £20,000 final payment, would produce affordable house prices in the region of £46,364.80 to £56,364.80 per home (based on a tenant paying rent every 4 weeks).
This petition was considered by the Scottish Parliament
26 signatures