Scottish government declares national housing emergency

[MBT6]

The Scottish government has declared a national housing emergency.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4n11j180lzo

Edited May 16 by MBT6

[MBT6]

One critical issue that's not getting enough attention in the housing crisis debate is the lack of properly trained tradesmen who charge reasonable prices. From my personal experience, the only affordable options are usually people without formal construction training—essentially DIY enthusiasts or handymen who lack a thorough understanding of building regulations. How can we ensure that construction complies with building regulations when there's no way to verify that these workers are knowledgeable about them?

 

Hiring someone who has undergone proper training and certification is incredibly expensive. The government needs to address this by establishing a robust system for training and certifying tradesmen. We need more funding for apprenticeships and training programmes to create a workforce of skilled tradesmen.

 

Currently, the Scottish government spends vast amounts of money sending people to university for what are often considered 'mickey mouse' courses. This funding would be better allocated to training tradesmen. It's a matter of supply and demand—the shortage of qualified tradesmen allows those who are skilled to charge exorbitant prices. Increasing the supply of properly trained tradesmen would help reduce costs and make it more affordable to undertake construction projects.

 

Even those who have land and want to build homes are deterred by the high prices charged by tradesmen. This is a significant issue that rarely gets the attention it deserves in discussions about the housing crisis. Addressing this could make a substantial difference in tackling the housing shortage.

Edited May 16 by MBT6

[saveasteading]

9 minutes ago, MBT6 said:

mickey mouse' courses.

It starts at school. I've done careers days and almost everyone coming to us representing "construction" wants to be an architect. They are studying photography and media studies or some such. The careers teachers know little either.

 

It is sortable but does anyone in a position to make the change really understand it?

[JohnMo]

SNP, wants almost unlimited people coming into the country, they have been in power for donkeys years and anything not right, is the UK government problem not their and of their making. SNP have frozen council tax for about a decade and wonde why councils have no money. Sooner they get voted out the better.

[saveasteading]

1 minute ago, JohnMo said:

Sooner they get voted out the better.

Politics. Please don't. 

[MR10]

1 hour ago, saveasteading said:

It starts at school. I've done careers days and almost everyone coming to us representing "construction" wants to be an architect. 

Now they all want to be 'content creators'/influencers.

[saveasteading]

9 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

SNP, wants almost unlimited people coming into the country

Not unlimited, as there only a few thousand new houses at any time,  but there are certainly huge numbers of English emigrants to the Highlands and NE.

[JohnMo]

12 minutes ago, saveasteading said:

Not unlimited, as there only a few thousand new houses at any time,  but there are certainly huge numbers of English emigrants to the Highlands and NE.

They want us back in the EU = unlimited immigration 

[Temp]

We left the EU in 2021. After that...

 

 

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, Temp said:

After that

We will not allow facts to ruin a good story.

[JohnMo]

6 hours ago, Temp said:

We left the EU in 2021. After that...

 

 

Or the long version 

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/long-term-international-migration-flows-to-and-from-the-uk/#:~:text=Net migration was unusually high in the year ending June,of migration in the UK.

[Crofter]

This is all getting rapidly off topic. Can we talk about houses please? 

 

One thing I think is highly relevant is how the balance has changed between owner occupied, private rental, and council/association housing. I saw some interesting figures on this recently but can't seem to find them again.

 

 

[JohnMo]

What does a housing emergency mean?

 

Walking about you see houses not occupied - that's one problem

You see new houses being built and people living in them

You see holiday rentals - is this a problem that should be addressed

 

So exactly is the issue?

 

[Crofter]

2 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

What does a housing emergency mean?

According to the article that the OP linked at the start, it means that a number of local authorities have declared that the current arrangements are not working, and this has now escalated to a national situation.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

 

Walking about you see houses not occupied - that's one problem

Fully agree with that. We don't have enough houses for people to enjoy the luxury of owning extra ones that they leave empty.

 

 

2 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

You see new houses being built and people living in them

Which is good.

 

 

2 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

You see holiday rentals - is this a problem that should be addressed

The Scottish government have begun to address this. Speaking as the owner of a holiday let, I was pretty amazed how little regulation there was when I first set up business six years ago. I'm not sure what effect the new licensing scheme is having, and it varies between different councils as they are free to implement it how they see fit.

What's clearly needed is a balance, the holiday lets bring in tourists who spend money in restaurants etc, but you still need enough housing for everybody else. In my area it's close to impossible for nurses, doctors, teachers etc to find anywhere to live. In a rural area this is a major problem because the nearest available housing is literally hundreds of miles away.

 

 

2 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

 

 

 

[JohnMo]

10 minutes ago, Crofter said:

it means that a number of local authorities have declared that the current arrangements are not working,

So not really sure what that bit means?

 

Are they unhappy with the allocation of funding or lack of?

Unhappy with the council tax freeze for the last decade, which stops them self funding?

Or is it something else?

Edited May 17 by JohnMo

[MBT6]

At least when we were in the EU there was a steady supply of Polish tradesmen who did good work for a reasonable price.

 

Several years ago a friend of mine was renovating a flat in Edinburgh, he did a lot of the work himself, but wanted to get a tradesman in to do the bathroom as he thought that was above his level of skill, he got a lot of quotes and the best one was from a Polish tradesman who did it for about £4k. A lot of the Scottish tradesmen were quoting £10k+ the highest was about £15k. It wasn't a big bathroom either, not more than 3m x 3m at a rough estimate.

 

The Polish worker did a great job for that price, he is still in the same flat and has never had a problem with the bathroom. 

 

I hate the way a lot of British tradesmen price jobs, there can be no nuance to their quote as to what you are actually looking for, they just look at the square meterage and give a really high price per m2. The Polish guys tend to give a bit more nuance in their quotes, not a blanket price per m2.

Edited May 17 by MBT6

[MBT6]

The government has strengthened tenants rights so much it puts people off being a landlord.

 

If a tenant stops paying rent it is extremely expensive and time consuming to get them evicted, in some cases it is almost impossible to evict them and they can effectively live for free in your house. If the government wants more landlords they should simplify the process of evicting people who stop paying rent.

 

Also they are talking about preventing landlords from having blanket bans on pets, this is ridiculous. For multiple reasons a landlord should be able to prevent cats or dogs from being in their property. They want more landlords yet are talking about brining in things like this which will put people off.

[SteamyTea]

3 minutes ago, MBT6 said:

government wants more landlords

Or just build more stock.

 

4 minutes ago, MBT6 said:

For multiple reasons a landlord should be able to prevent cats or dogs from being in their property

I wish I could stop selling meals to people with pets, children, an Audi, and unfamiliar accents.

As it is, I just order more stuff in, then thrown a quarter of it in the bin after it has been left by the customers.

[AliG]

In Edinburgh there is a piece of land on the south side of the town which would be a great place to build houses.

 

It is an ugly field and has had houses built all around it in the last 40 years, hundreds within the last 10 years. Thus it is within the A720 bypass and has good bus services making it very commutable.

 

It is, however, greenbelt. I don't know why as normally the greenbelt is on the other side of the A720 bypass which is supposed to define the edge of the town.

 

On the west side of the town (West Craigs) they are in the process of building a couple of thousand houses. They have also approved the "Garden District" which I think is 6000 houses. This was all greenbelt land and outwith the normal city boundary with absolutely no bus services, schools doctors etc. In fact it is very clear to see how far edinburgh will sprawl to the west towards the airport over the next 20 or 30 years. I don't like this because of the sprawl it will create.

 

Funnily enough the local MP and councillors don't care at all about houses being built there in a less appropriate place not in their constituency.

 

The residents near the land I am talking about have got up a massive NIMBY campaign supported by local MPs and councillors, the Facebook group has 831 members, the application has almost 1000 objections. Their main argument is that there are not enough GPs and school places so the houses should be built somewhere else. This argument is entirely bogus, as there is literally nowhere in the town with spare GP or school capacity, so this issue would be the same anywhere, but those other places where they are building are much further from the city centre its much poorer public transport which make them much worse places to build. They also complain about traffic, I drive past regularly and it is fine. They also complain that recently built houses have damp issues which obviously has nothing to do with it. They had a good at me saying it was a good place to build and I just went through their arguments one by one saying they were nonsense.

 

NIMBYism is absolutely rife. MPs and local councillors should have very limited input into planning as no one ever wants anything built. I saw people objecting to a new warehouse development near Edinburgh airport. It actually had previous approval in 2009 with 0 objections. Now houses have been built nearby and there are dozens of objections to a reapplication for something that was approved already.

 

Now of course there may still be shortages of tradespeople etc which need to be addressed, but the reality is that people don't actually want houses built.

[SteamyTea]

26 minutes ago, AliG said:

It is, however, greenbelt

Greenbelt was never ment to be zero development, unfortunately it is thought of as such by way too many people.

 

The schools/hospitals/roads/public services arguement is so bogus that it should be discounted at the very beginning. If those public services are needed, then they will be built. Staffing is a totally different problem.

[ProDave]

This "housing crisis" is nothing new, it has not just appeared, but is the result of a generation or more of flawed policies limiting the number of houses being built and the policy of selling council houses to tenants, but not then being allowed to use the money that generates to build more council houses.

 

And lets just say I am very glad I am no longer a landlord.  The policy makers just cannot see the cause and effect link between the policies they implement and the result it has.

 

People talk of Tory Austerity, but I have spent my whole working life under all sorts of governments and a common them all that time has been cutbacks, savings and efficiency.  You would think by now having been trying for 40+ years we would have the most streamlined, and efficient public services on the planet providing tremendous value for money and an excellent service......

 

I am retiring now and I am probably one of the last that left school into a 4 year apprenticeship that set me up well for the rest of my working life.  In a time when only the really bright kids went to university and did a proper worthwhile degree.  Then it became fashionable for everyone to go to university how dare you say I am not intelligent enough.  Then someone decided it was a good idea for the students to pay for it and start their working life with a massive debt burden.  But in spite of that, the lemmings still continued to go to university.

[Crofter]

2 hours ago, MBT6 said:

They want more landlords 

Do they? 

Surely we want more owner occupiers?

 

There will always be a small need for temporary rental accommodation- e.g. if you've moved to a new area and need somewhere to live while you build or buy-but I don't see how it's a good thing for it to be normal to spend years and years in a rented house, paying off somebody else's mortgage.

[Nick Thomas]

5 hours ago, Crofter said:

There will always be a small need for temporary rental accommodation- e.g. if you've moved to a new area and need somewhere to live while you build or buy-but I don't see how it's a good thing for it to be normal to spend years and years in a rented house, paying off somebody else's mortgage.

 

Well, it's a good thing for the landlord ^^.

 

It'd be nice for social housing to be for everyone again, but there's not much work on that in Scotland or England.