Glasgow 'happy to use other councils unspent budgets' to tackle city's housing crisis

Glasgow would be happy to use other councils’ unspent budgets to address the city’s housing emergency, a senior councillor has said.

Cllr Ruairi Kelly, SNP, convener for housing and development at Glasgow City Council, made the comment following reports of an almost £60m underspend in Edinburgh’s budget for building and buying new homes this year.

He said housing pressures in Glasgow are “undeniably more acute than anywhere else in Scotland” and redirecting funds from other local authorities could help tackle the crisis.

A national housing emergency was declared by the Scottish Government in May 2024. It came after several councils, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, had made their own citywide declarations.

In Glasgow, the emergency was announced in November 2023 amid mounting pressure on homelessness services.

On Friday, it was reported that the City of Edinburgh Council wasn’t using £14.3m for building new council housing this year, as well as £45m for buying existing housing. A report also stated another £11m was saved from a budget for homelessness services.

Officials and senior councillors have insisted the funds will be used for housing next year. They said staff are working “flat out” to address the crisis.

On social media, Cllr Kelly said having a “little slippage in your build programme is one thing, not spending nearly half your budget is another”.

He would “happily find use for any and all underspend nationally”, he added.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Kelly said: “Glasgow has some of the UK’s best social housing and we’re still building more homes than several comparator cities combined.

“But our housing pressures are undeniably more acute than anywhere else in Scotland.

“If we’re shouldering a burden for the rest of the country, then redirecting the housing budgets which aren’t being spent by other councils to Glasgow would go a long way to addressing our national housing emergency.

“Working better across local authority boundaries so we can fill empty houses in areas of lower demand while building in areas with greater capacity seems to me like a good regional solution to a national challenge.”

Officials in Edinburgh said savings were in part due to a move away from using unlicensed HMOs and B&Bs for temporary housing.

They added the £45m underspend on buying existing homes reflected “slippage in the programme”.

Edinburgh council’s finance convener, Mandy Watt, Labour, said: “Edinburgh’s housing budget is fully committed as part of the plans to address Edinburgh’s housing emergency. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are facing an unprecedented need for more homes.

“I would certainly welcome anything that the Scottish Government can do to help both cities address this need.

“Tackling the housing emergency remains one of our absolute priorities as a council, which of course goes hand in hand with addressing poverty.

“Capital budgets being underspent is not unusual and there are many complex factors at play here, not least market pressures and availability of housing.

“We’re also duty bound to provide good value for all taxpayer’s money. I want to reassure residents that these funds will still be used on housing, with the majority being spent this financial year.”