ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role and significance of housing in the Scottish economy in 2016. It explains why it is important to view the housing sector as a system of interconnected parts, and why this is a useful perspective for thinking about housing policy and process. The chapter describes briefly how key indicators of Scottish housing have evolved since the 1950s. It suggests that the way housing policy has operated since 1979 and how devolution post 1999 affected its trajectory. The chapter focuses on the principal challenges confronting Scottish housing, and argues that these require a sustained policy response. Housing and homelessness legislation in Scotland were predicated on the notion of housing as a fundamental right that everyone should be able to enjoy. Housing plays a significant role in the wider economy. The national housing indicators and outcomes relate primarily to social outcomes and are only implicitly about economic growth and stability.
