International Definitions and Measures of ‘Affordable Housing’ and Current Local Practices in Scotland

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Ljubojevic, Maya and Smith, Katherine E. (2025) International Definitions and Measures of ‘Affordable Housing’ and Current Local Practices in Scotland. Scottish Health Equity Research Unit, Glasgow. (https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00094205)

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Abstract

Safe, stable, and affordable homes are fundamental building blocks for health, wellbeing, and wider life outcomes. Housing precarity—such as insecure, poor-quality, or unaffordable housing—has well-evidenced negative impacts on health and wellbeing. The fact that Scotland is currently experiencing a housing emergency, as declared by the Scottish Government in May 2024, is therefore of major concern when it comes to population health and health inequalities. The Scottish Government’s housing strategy, Housing to 2040, places a strong emphasis on affordable housing, with specific affordable homes targets. Yet, there is currently no agreed way of defining and measuring affordable housing in Scotland. The strategy included a commitment to work with stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of affordability and a Scottish Government Housing Affordability Working Group, Chaired by Professor Ken Gibb, is due to report imminently. Ahead of this review, and in support of our broader assessment of the potential for Housing to 2040 to help reduce health inequalities, this briefing delves into some of the options for defining and measuring affordable housing. SHERU’s focus on health inequalities means we are particularly concerned with understanding how measures of affordable housing link to housing availability for low income, and very low income, households. We therefore focus particularly on how well definitions and measures capture the challenges facing low income households across all sectors (so homeowner, private rental and social housing).

ORCID iDs

Ljubojevic, Maya and Smith, Katherine E. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1060-4102;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)