Housing Emergency Action Plan published

The Scottish Government published a Housing Emergency Action Plan (HEAP) in September 2025, according to a Scottish Government research publication on child poverty across the UK and Scotland¹. The same publication states that the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency in 2024¹.

The report sets the plan in the context of housing costs and housing policy across the devolved nations. It says lower housing costs and a larger social housing sector in Scotland have continued to protect low income households, resulting in consistently lower poverty rates after housing costs compared with the UK overall¹. It also reports that low income households with children spent 18% of net household income on housing in Scotland in 2022-25, against 22% for the UK as a whole¹.

On the private rented sector, the report says the UK Government reset local housing allowance (LHA) rates to the 30th percentile of market rent in 2024, the first increase since 2020, but that the UK rates have been frozen since¹. It notes that the Scottish Government introduced further protections for tenants through the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 and later through the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025¹.

The report also covers the bedroom tax, which since 2013 has limited housing benefit and the housing element of Universal Credit for council or housing association tenants considered to be under-occupying their homes, reducing the rent tenants can claim by 14% for one additional bedroom and 25% for two or more additional bedrooms¹. It says the Scottish Government committed to mitigating the bedroom tax through Discretionary Housing Payments, with a total value of awards over 2025/26 of £93.3 million at an average award value of £626¹.

The report does not set out the measures contained in the Housing Emergency Action Plan, and no funding figures, targets or delivery dates for the plan appear in it. Those details have not been reported in this publication.

Why it matters for households

The plan follows a formal declaration of a national housing emergency in 2024¹. For households in Scotland, the report's housing chapter describes the existing landscape rather than new entitlements: social housing supply and lower housing costs are identified as reasons poverty rates after housing costs are lower in Scotland than across the UK¹, while private renters are affected by LHA rates that were reset to the 30th percentile of market rent in 2024 and have been frozen since¹.

Tenants in council or housing association homes affected by the bedroom tax can have their housing benefit or Universal Credit housing element reduced by 14% for one additional bedroom and 25% for two or more¹. Discretionary Housing Payments intended to mitigate that reduction had a total award value of £93.3 million over 2025/26, at an average award of £626¹. The report says there is no specific evaluation disentangling the impacts of those payments in Scotland¹.

The report also notes that the Scottish Government did not directly replicate the UK Government's Household Support Fund, instead using Barnett consequentials for measures including a £150 Cost of Living Award for households in Council Tax bands A to D and those in receipt of Council Tax Reduction¹. It says it is not possible to separately assess the impact of that consequential funding in Scotland, as resources were shared across different funding streams¹.

What happens next

The publication does not give a timetable for the Housing Emergency Action Plan, nor any milestones or review dates for it. The report states that the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency in 2024 and published the plan in September 2025¹. No further steps arising from the plan are set out in this document.

Readers looking at how housing costs interact with devolved tax and benefit rules can find background in the nations hub and in the guide to Scottish and Welsh income tax.