Overall, the research found that the cost of new build has increased from an average of 拢114,000 per unit in 2016/17 to 拢134-138,000 in 2020/21.
SFHA says that the report provides evidence of the rise in costs experienced by developing housing associations and co-operatives over the past five years, including those driven by the introduction of additional requirements around energy efficiency, fire safety and space standards.聽
The report was commissioned in advance of the first meeting of a review group led by the Scottish government and Cosla, the voice of Local Government in Scotland. The review group is looking at whether adjustments are required to the current set of benchmark assumptions that underpin the grant-funded element of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme.聽
In addition, the report looks at the impact of rising costs not specifically associated with development 鈥� for example investment in existing stock and new regulatory requirements. These can have an impact on the levels of investment housing associations and co-operatives are able to make in new build. The impacts of other issues, including Brexit and procurement reform, were also considered.
Key findings of the research, which included interviews with 10 different housing associations and co-operatives including small, large, rural/remote and urban, include:
- The cost of building new homes is rising, with tender prices increasing by up to 40-45% over the past five years. The cost of materials has increased significantly over the past year and there are signs that the combined impact of Covid-19 and Brexit is putting further pressure on labour and materials costs.
- The introduction of ambitious local design standards, such as the Glasgow Standard, is increasing costs by between 5-10% and 13-15%, whilst building to the Passivhaus standard can add 17.3% to the cost of a typical two-bedroom property.
- SFHA said that many registered social landlords (RSLs) are still in the process of understanding the cost implications of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing 2 (EESSH2), but those who have already assessed it indicate that it could add between 拢7-10,000 per unit to capital investment programmes, excluding replacement heating. The scale of investment required is driving some RSLs to consider the balance of their capital investment programmes, with the priority being ensuring existing stock meets required standards.
- New fire safety requirements for existing homes will increase installation/replacement costs and these new requirements are also having an impact on staffing costs, with a number of RSLs employing additional staff.
- There is concern amongst rural landlords that the cost of meeting EESSH2 and fire safety requirements could be higher in rural/island locations.
- It was felt that procurement reform had increased costs and complexity with little or no positive impact. There was also a perception that procurement reform was discouraging smaller contractors, leaving the sector increasingly reliant on a relatively small pool of larger contractors.
SFHA chief executive Sally Thomas said: 鈥淭his report demonstrates the scale of the additional costs experienced by our developing members in the last five years. A large percentage of these costs has聽 been driven by increasing standards,聽 including in energy efficiency and fire safety.
鈥淚t is clearly right that the Scottish government has introduced higher standards in pursuit of Scotland鈥檚 targets for net zero and of course to ensure the safety of tenants, which remains of paramount importance to SFHA鈥檚 members.
鈥淗owever, it is also clear that the grant benchmarks system must be reviewed in order to reflect the additional costs set out in our report, to ensure RSLs are able to continue to deliver the safe, warm and affordable homes the Scottish Government describes in its Housing to 2040 strategy.
鈥淕rant is an investment in affordable housing, not a subsidy. We do not highlight increasing costs simply to ask for more money; what we are doing is making the case for sufficient investment to allow our members to deliver the affordable housing required to address the backlog of need in Scotland.聽
鈥淭he benefits of doing so are well evidenced, including in our 2020 report, The Impact of Social Housing: Economic, Social, Health and Wellbeing. This report found that the social and economic returns on investment in the social housing sector is significant for Scotland and its people, including reducing poverty and homelessness, improving health, and creating jobs.鈥�
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