‘Disgrace’ as £87m for new homes goes unspent

NEARLY £90 million of cash earmarked for solving Scotland’s housing crisis went unspent last year, new figures have revealed.

Last week a charity warned a “terrible shortage” of affordable homes combined with welfare reforms and stagnant wages is pushing more people to the brink of homelessness.

The Sunday Post can reveal £87m of the money earmarked for housing was not spent last year.

The haul included £36m of unspent infrastructure loans and £24m of help-to-buy loans not claimed by prospective homeowners.

The Scottish Government last night said any suggestion the surplus was due to a lack of spending on housing “is completely false”.

But Labour finance spokeswoman Jackie Baillie branded the situation “disgraceful”.

She added: “Our world-leading homelessness legislation is not being matched on the ground.

“It is a dereliction of duty for the SNP government to still have millions of pounds under-spent.”

A breakdown of the cash for the 2016/17 budget shows £34m of the underspend is made up of receipts from the sale of land or homes where the Scottish Government has provided funding.

A further £36m was for the Infrastructure Loan Fund, which gives funding towards projects, such as access roads for new housing estates.

Cash for energy efficiency measures worth £10m was also not spent due to “delays in completion and invoicing”.

Finally, £24m allocated for a range of demand-led loan and equity-based affordable housing schemes was not spent because there was not a sufficient number of applications from people, or they were not processed in this time period.

Shelter Scotland last week said it had helped more than 21,000 people in the past year, with one household in Scotland becoming homeless every 19 minutes on average.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Any suggestion that this surplus is due to a lack of spending on housing or supporting our most vulnerable communities is completely false.

“This figure relates to projects where funding is demand-led, and to complex and large-scale projects.

“And a significant amount is from higher than expected receipts from the sale of homes and stock previously funded by Scottish Government, essentially, additional money coming in, rather than money being unspent.”