Outgoing First Minister is facing a "campaign of resistance" at his offices tomorrow as it emerged a key Scottish Government funding bid to help end a housing and homelessness crisis lost more than £300m over the past two years.

The massive shortfall has come despite a pledge by Humza Yousaf of an uplift of £80m for affordable housing over the next two years.

His pledge came as he faced a motion of no confidence in him which led to him resigning as First Minister and SNP leader.

Concerns remain that a key Scottish Government pledge to deliver 110,000 social and affordable homes by 2032 has been delivered a "fatal blow" by the cuts.

The Herald can reveal that the Scottish Government's affordable homes will have taken a cumulative hit of over £300m over the past two years - based against the 2022/23 allocation of £831.445m - despite the First Minister's uplift.

READ MORE:  More than 14 homeless people die a month in Scotland

Now housing campaigners are planning to converge on Mr Yousaf's Govan offices to protest at the cuts and demand that more money is pumped into provision of affordable housing in what they call the start of a "campaign of resistance" that will be "ramped up" in the weeks ahead.

Concerns about how the  Scottish Government is tackling the housing crisis emerged after what housing campaigners said was a "staggering" £196.08m (26%) cut to the budget in the past year alone, without taking into account inflation, with the spending plans for 2024/25 set at £555.862m  before the extra £40m promised by the First Minister.

But it has emerged that if the budget had kept up with inflation in 2024/25, the spending plans would have been at £985.25m. 

The Herald:

Without taking into account inflation, the shortfall against 2022/23 is at £315.08m.

When inflation has been taken into account, instead of getting £2.723bn over the three years - the affordable homes budget is at £2.179bn.

The affordable homes plan set out by Nicola Sturgeon in a Programme for Government in 2021 aimed to "build on our investment in housing".

And Mr Yousaf in announcing the new money added: “Housing is essential in our efforts to tackle child poverty and reduce inequality across Scotland, and it supports jobs and growth in the economy.

“Providing good quality, affordable housing is at the very core of what my Government is doing to make Scotland a better place.

“While there is a single person homeless in our country, it is simply not acceptable to have houses sitting empty – so I am determined that we remove the barriers and provide the money that will enable councils to buy properties so they can become affordable homes again."

Protesters are due to land on Mr Yousaf's constituency office in Govan to demand a reverse of what they call the "callous and brutal financial cuts" to housing and homelessness services.

The Scottish Tenants' Organisation which is organising the protest which is due to be attended by those who have suffered homelessness, will hand in a letter demanding that Mr Yousaf sanction adequate money to be spent on social housing in Scotland up to 2032.

The Herald: Humza Yousaf

They want to bring back into circulation thousands of empty homes through retrofitting them for homeless people during this housing and homeless emergency.

They will tell Mr Yousaf: "To push ahead with these shameful and brutal financial cuts to housing and homeless services in Scotland is tantamount to unremitting cruelty and barbarism towards our poorest and most vulnerable citizens.

"You are betraying homeless families to a life of penury, destitution and ill health when in fact the Scottish Government should have made public sector housing and homeless services its number one priority."

READ MORE: Kate Forbes: ScotGov must "do more with own powers' to end poverty

They say the direct action is the start of a campaign aimed at forcing the Scottish Government into a "sea change in policy" as the recently announced £80m was seen as a "sop over two years" and was "not enough when we are encountering a housing and homeless tsunami in Scotland which your government refuse to recognise being completely out of touch with the lives of the common people of Scotland".

The cuts have emerged as concerns were raised that the number of affordable homes being approved for build has slumped.

Official data shows the overall number of affordable homes being started for build including for rent in the social sector has dropped to the lowest annual level for eight years. Some 6,302 affordable homes were begun in the year to the end of September as part of an official programme - but that is a 24% drop (1,996 homes) on the 7,159 started in the last annual analysis.

Some 6,178 homes were given the nod for grant funding in the year to the end of September as part of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme - down by 14% (981 homes) on the 7159 approved in the previous year and the lowest equivalent annual figure since 2013.

This is set against the number of open homelessness applications in Scotland soaring by 30% since the pandemic began - from 22,754 in March, 2020, to 29,652 in 2022/23. The homeless household numbers being forced into temporary accommodation - like hotels and bed and breakfasts - rather than settled homes has shot up from 11,807 to 15,039.

And four local authorities have declared a symbolic housing emergency - Glasgow, Edinburgh, Argyll and Bute and Fife - all citing shortages of affordable housing.

The Herald:

Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator for the STO said: "Nothing less than a housing revolution is needed to rescue the dire situation that has been allowed to develop.

"Despite his intention to resign he remains First Minister and therefore we will mounting this vigorous protest."

Mr Yousaf had in his first "unapologetically anti-poverty and pro-growth" Programme for Government in September remained "committed" to the 110,000 affordable homes delivery.

As of December, Scotland has been averaging 633 affordable housing starts a month since setting the target. To meet a 110,000 homes target they have to deliver at an average of 894 homes a month.

The Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, in a July analysis, said that the supply of affordable homes has fallen 20% in three years and "shows no sign of recovering".

They say at least 125,000 homes for social rent were needed simply to satisfy existing demand.

Its July analysis revealed that 243,603 people are currently on the waiting list for social housing, but only 26,102 allocations were made across the entire country.

Housing minister Paul McLennan said the majority of the spending on affordable housing this year will be on social rent.

He said: “Scotland has led the UK in housing by delivering more than 128,000 affordable homes since 2007.

“The UK Government failed to inflation-proof their capital budget, and this has resulted in nearly a 10% real terms cut in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28. Likewise our Financial Transactions budget – key to delivering affordable housing – has been cut by 62%.

“We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability. We are working with the financial community in Scotland, and elsewhere, to boost private sector investment and help deliver more homes.”