Scotland formally has a national housing crisis as every sector of the housing market faces demand that dramatically outstrips supply. The Scottish Government and local authorities have officially declared housing emergencies. Developers are struggling with costs and wider supply side constraints. The affordable housing budget for 2024/25 was cut by £196 million. People who want to buy and who want to rent face unaffordable costs in both sectors. How do we break this downward cycle? What policy action needs to be taken and how do we increase the supply of housing as quickly and sustainably as possible?
Not enough housing is being built in Scotland to meet the demand that exists across all sectors and tenures. As a result, rising house prices and rental costs are simply making housing increasingly inaccessible and unaffordable for many. That in turn is driving a broader series of public policy negative impacts including upon labour market mobility, health and mental health issues, poverty, household budgets and stability and the prospects for younger Scots trying to plan for their futures.
Just three years ago, the Scottish Government’s policies and vision to deliver ‘Housing to 2040’ had lofty ambitions. It intended to align with the Infrastructure Investment Plan and the Capital Spending Review, taking account of recommendations from the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland on strategic priorities. The then ‘Programme for Government’, was littered with policy and spending initiatives focused on housing and housing-related issues including planning, decarbonisation and infrastructure investment, among others. Much has changed in both policy and public finance terms, with clear consequences for housing supply and the capacity to meet housing targets.
While housing has been buffeted by a near perfect storm on supply side costs and policies, a range of other challenges are also expected to be met. The wider drive for Net Zero, the bedding in of the new Planning Act and implementation consequences of NPF4, the gap in reality between local housing strategies and their delivery and the emerging ambition of place-based policy making.
So what could a fresh approach to tackling Scotland's housing crisis look like? How do we get over the hurdles blocking delivery in both public and private sectors? Can we finds ways to lever in greater investment? Can policy and process barriers be tackled to make the task of supplying more housing easier? A relatively small proportion of Scotland is built upon. Large numbers of people are waiting to be able to find homes to rent or buy affordably. Developers want to build. Social landlords want to increase supply. If we are really committed to revitalising housing supply in Scotland, what policies need to change, which organisations need to come to the table with fresh thinking and who needs to lead the drive for delivery before housing crisis becomes housing chaos?
The conference examines these challenges in three sessions:
Topics to be discussed
Who should attend
This conference will be relevant for anyone involved in the planning, development, delivery and management of housing in Scotland and associated activities such as infrastructure funding and investment, carbon reduction and energy efficiency, place-based and whole system policy development.
This includes house builders, developers, planners, housing and planning committee members, social housing providers, private landlords, community representatives, lawyers with housing and planning specialisms, architects & designers, housing advisors, housing and planning academics, housing funders and investors, carbon reduction advisors, specialists and implementation organisations including those in the field of energy efficiency, district heating, energy retrofit and heat decarbonisation. More generally, it includes all public sector bodies with housing interests and responsibilities, private companies with engagement in the housing system, strategic bodies with an interest in housing and spatial planning, third & community sector organisations, and agencies and departments supporting housing development and growth.
Professor in Housing Economics (Urban Studies)
University of Glasgow
Ken Gibb (Professor)
Professor in Housing Economics (Urban Studies)
University of Glasgow
Kenn Gibb is a Professor in the School of Social and Political Sciences in the subject area of Urban Studies. He is also Director of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) funded by ESRC, AHRC and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and established in 2017. CaCHE is located in the Olympia Building, Bridgeton, in the social sciences research hub. For four years, he was the first director of Policy Scotland, and also a co-director of What Works Scotland co-funded by ESRC and Scottish Government (until taking up the role in CaCHE).
He has been a full time member of staff at the University in various guises since 1989. He was an ESRC research fellow until his appointment as a Lecturer in 1994. After becoming a Senior Lecturer in 1999 and a Reader in 2001, he became a Professor (housing economics) in 2006. He was also Head of the Department of Urban Studies from 2005 to 2010 and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences in 2009-10.
His research interests are focused on the economic, financial and policy dimensions of housing. He has carried out research for government departments, ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, trade bodies, the private sector and international organisations like OECD, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and the European Union. Recent research, including projects for the Scottish Funding Council and for the EPSRC, have shifted into the economics and evaluation of net zero and lower carbon retrofit of existing housing.
He was a managing editor of the Urban Studies journal for 10 years. He is a past president of RC43 (housing) of the International Sociological Association and is a former president of the European Real Estate Society. He is an associate editor of Housing, Theory and Society. He was a visiting professor to the University of Amsterdam in 2011. He has acted as advisor to the Scottish Parliament's Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee and has also worked for the Scottish Parliament's Welfare Reform Committee. He has given evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee, Local Government Committee and the Social Security Committee (previously welfare reform), as well as the Scottish Affairs and Housing and Local Government select committees at Westminster.
He was a member of Lord Best’s housing affordability commission, he sits on an MLUHC expert panel considering implementation of the UK Government’s social housing white paper. He is a member of the Northern Ireland government’s housing supply task force and a member of the research and insights advisory panel of The Housing Agency (Ireland). He also chairs the advisory board of the Dublin Housing Observatory. He leads (with David Duncan) the University’s Glasgow homelessness initiative.
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