- A further £36 million per year on average is needed post commencement for the remainder of this parliamentary term for all relevant public services to deliver Ask and Act
- Once in place, Scotland’s new prevention laws could avoid costs to public services of around £79 million on average every year, cutting the use of expensive temporary accommodation and contact with the justice system in particular
- Many people in insecure housing are already in touch with multiple services, with people reporting that nobody joins the dots and asks about their risk of homelessness
- Crisis Scotland urges ministers to be farsighted and “spend to save”, prioritising investment in prevention the upcoming Scottish Budget
Public services in Scotland need almost £100 million investment over the next two years so that hospitals, the police, prisons, councils, housing associations and Social Security Scotland are ready to proactively prevent homelessness, according to independent research published today.
The analysis by Alma Economics, commissioned by Crisis and published alongside Crisis Scotland's new report Changing Course: Delivering a Preventative Approach to Ending Homelessness through Public Service Reform, is the first to cost the work needed to prepare for implementation, as well as how much each public body will require to deliver their new legal duties to ‘ask’ and to ‘act’ early to prevent homelessness. It finds that £99.8 million is needed to get services ready, before commencement in November 2028, mainly for a new secure national data sharing system for public services, training for frontline staff, coordination and IT systems.
Once in force, this homelessness prevention programme would cost on average £36 million a year to run for the rest of this parliamentary term. In return, it would avoid around £115 million a year in demand on public services, leaving net avoided costs of around £76-£82 million a year, with particular benefit in terms of avoided contact with the criminal justice system, temporary accommodation and need for mental health and homelessness services.
The report is published as Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing, visits Wester Hailes to see how local public services are piloting the new incoming legal duties- Ask and Act by working effectively together as early as possible to give households greater stability and avoid becoming homeless.
Last year nearly 54,000 people in Scotland were homeless or threatened with homelessness, including 14,400 children, and the number of households living in temporary accommodation is at a record high. Rough sleeping has increased 20% in the last year alone.
In many cases, people are in contact with public services long before they lose their home. In one Crisis study, 15 people with recent experience of homelessness had been in touch with at least 80 services between them in the six months before they became homeless, five each on average. Almost all had contacted their council's housing service, and most had been in touch with health services.
Crisis Scotland’s frontline services see what those missed chances to prevent homelessness result in: someone facing a night on the streets after being released from prison with only a travel warrant, arriving at the council office after it has closed, or someone whose surgery is delayed because they have nowhere safe to recover.
New legal Ask and Act duties in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 are designed to stop these chances being missed. The laws will require health boards, Police Scotland, prisons, social landlords and Social Security Scotland to ask people about their housing and act on what they hear, with councils legally obligated to respond at least six months before someone loses their home.
Crisis Scotland says this is spend to save in action, a pivotal investment in public service reform that the Scottish Government must prioritise in its Budget on 3 December. Because the savings fall across justice, health and housing, the charity is calling for the cost to be shared across government rather than left to the housing budget alone.
Changing Course sets out 12 recommendations to get delivery right in time for November 2028, including a clear and fully funded implementation plan with national leadership from across government, and confirmation to public bodies by April 2027 of the support and funding they will receive.
Maeve McGoldrick, Head of Policy and Communications at Crisis Scotland, said:
“Scotland has genuinely groundbreaking new laws to prevent homelessness, and the idea at its heart came from people who have been homeless themselves: ask us what we need, then act on it. This new research shows for the first time what it will take to get implementation right, as we know legislation is only ever as good as it is delivered.”
“This is spend to save in action and an investment that the Scottish Government must prioritise in its upcoming Budget. With two years before national commencement, we urgently need plans and funding in place to get the systems and workforce ready for successful delivery.”
“We also need to see meaningful investment from across government portfolios so that public services are equipped to be successful in their delivery. The new laws mean preventing homelessness will become a cross-government responsibility and the benefits will be felt across health, justice and local councils. Our new report sets out what we need to do now, so that when the duties come into force in two years’ time, people get help long before they reach crisis point.”
Alma Economics said:
“We are delighted to have undertaken this important work for Crisis. The report brings together the latest evidence and stakeholder insight to provide a robust assessment of the potential costs and resource implications of implementing the proposed Ask and Act duties across Scotland. By strengthening the evidence base for decision-making and implementation planning, we hope the findings will support efforts to prevent homelessness earlier and contribute to better outcomes for people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness.
Crisis Scotland's Lived Experience Panel, who wrote the report's foreword, said:
“Pay for it now, or pay for it later. The numbers in this report matter. But what no report can fully count is the person spared trauma, the person spared addiction, the child who does not have to move school, the relationships that hold together rather than break apart.”
The Scottish Government's Programme for Government sets out the ambition to end homelessness and to shift from crisis management to prevention. Fifteen years after the Christie Commission called for public services to put prevention first, Crisis Scotland says the new duties put those principles into practice, and give Scotland the chance to build a system designed to prevent harm rather than respond to it.
ENDS
Notes to editors
The report
Changing Course: How to deliver a Preventative Approach to Ending Homelessness through Public Service Reform was published by Crisis Scotland.
It sets out 12 recommendations and includes mini essays from previous government minister and MSP; Kevin Stewart, Chief Executive of Community Justice Scotland; Karyn McCluskey, Director of Housing and Homelessness at Edinburgh Council; Derek McGowan, Head of Homelessness and Prevention at Turning Point Scotland; Nicky Miller and Chief Executive of Crisis; Matt Downie
The research
The independent research by Alma Economics was commissioned by Crisis and is published alongside the report. Link here
Costings by Alma Economics (2026), high estimate n(£m, nominal terms).
|
Year
|
Preparation
|
Running costs
|
Avoided costs
|
Net avoided costs
|
|
2026 (Nov to Dec)
|
2.3
|
|
|
|
|
2027
|
49.4
|
|
|
|
|
2028 (Jan to Oct)
|
48.1
|
|
|
|
|
2028 (Nov to Dec)
|
|
16.3
|
18.3
|
2.0
|
|
2029
|
|
34.8
|
112.0
|
77.2
|
|
2030
|
|
38.2
|
114.5
|
76.4
|
|
2031
|
|
36.1
|
118.0
|
81.9
|
|
Total or annual average
|
99.8 total (Nov 2026-Oct 2028)
|
36.4 a year (average 2029-2031)
|
114.8 a year (average 2029-2031)
|
78.5 a year (average 2029-2031)
|
Where the costs fall
In 2027, councils need £18.7 million and health boards £15.3 million to prepare. Almost half of all preparation spending is shared data infrastructure that wider public service reform needs anyway. The Financial Memorandum to the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 costed councils only, at £2.8 million a year.
Where costs are avoided
In 2029, the largest avoided costs are in the justice system (£35.4 million), temporary accommodation (£33.5 million) and mental health and addiction services (£27.3 million), followed by homelessness relief services (£15.7 million).
About the figures
Avoided costs are indicative reductions in future demand on public services, not cashable savings. Net avoided costs, annual averages and the figures that follow are Crisis Scotland's calculations from the Alma Economics figures. Between 2029 and 2031 the duties cost £109.1 million to run and avoid £344.5 million of public spending, or £3.16 for every £1. Including all preparation and post commencement costs from 2026, cumulative avoided costs overtake cumulative spending during 2030.
Recommendations
Changing Course report makes 12 recommendations to get implementation right and ready for full commencement in November 2028:
- Strengthen cross-portfolio leadership by creating an agreed vison of success, alongside a robust implementation plan, and the establishment of governance structures across all relevant government portfolios.
- Intensify the learning and scaling up of the pilot programme; allowing for best practice to be shared nationally to drive forward a two-year implementation programme.
- Invest early in the national infrastructure required for prevention systems change, in addition to funding for the new legal duties.
- A cross-departmental approach is taken to developing national guidance.
- Invest in a new, national data-sharing system and capability between public bodies.
- Establish clear lines of responsibility for implementation, with accountability measures in place.
- Fund and deliver a national awareness and engagement campaign, designed to encourage greater public take up of support at a much earlier stage.
- ‘Personalisation’ tools are established and embedded into the design and delivery of Ask and Act such as a diagnostic tool and personal support plans.
- The strategic integration and coordination of services to establish a holistic model of support.
- A bold new training programme be rolled out nationally to prepare for full commencement and achieve the necessary culture change – devised in part by lived experience.
- Community Planning Partnerships provide strategic leadership to build a coherent ecosystem of localised co-ordinated support.
- In the upcoming budget, Scottish Government allocates £100 million of funding for a pre-commencement programme of infrastructure and capacity building, and between £35-38 million per year from November 2028 up until 2031 for post- commencement delivery of the new legal duties.
Spokespeople
Maeve McGoldrick and Alma Economics spokesperson are available for interview.
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