Scots must focus more on prevention

Scotland’s councils must put more effort into sustaining and supporting tenancies to stop people presenting as homeless, according to Shelter Scotland.

Archie Stoddart, the charity’s director, said this would be essential if councils were to meet targets to eradicate priority housing need by 2012. “By breaking that cycle councils might be preventing two or three presentations a year,” he told a fringe meeting at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities annual conference last week.

Edinburgh councillor Sheila Gilmore called on the executive to change its formula for allocating Strategic Housing Investment Framework funds. She said the pace of house building in the city could not keep up with demand and the number of council house sales. “The formula looks at deprivation instead of supply,” she added.