11,000 homeless households supported by Wheatley Group

Wheatley, which owns and manages over 64,000 homes for social rent through its subsidiaries Wheatley Homes Glasgow, Wheatley Homes South, Wheatley Homes East and Loretto Housing Association, has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the most vulnerable in Scottish society.

Behind every let is a story of transformation. One such story is William, 72, from Glasgow, who was formerly homeless before receiving the keys to his new home – and the support he needed – from Wheatley.

“I lived on the streets for a good number of years and struggled with alcohol and drug addiction,” William said.

“When you’re in that position, your trust in people just disappears. I had gotten to the point where I had accepted that I would never have a home until my housing officers changed that.

“They gave me their time when nobody else did. They helped me get a flat, made sure I had electricity and never left me – they kept checking on me, even if it was just a phone call.

“One day I was standing on a balcony, ready to jump, and the phone rang. It was one of my housing officers. I came down and spoke to them – that phone call saved my life.

“I now go wild swimming in Loch Lomond and am receiving the support I need – my life is full now, instead of years of isolation. They helped me when I needed it most and I feel so blessed to have had two lives in the one lifetime.”

Wheatley’s five-year strategy, launched in 2021, originally set a target of 10,000 homes for people experiencing homelessness by the end of 2026.

Following the Scottish Government’s declaration of a housing emergency, the Group increased its target to 11,000 – which it has delivered six months ahead of schedule.

Among those helped is Danielle, 32, a Wheatley Homes South tenant, who became homeless after losing her job while on maternity leave.

“I’d been working in a really good job and had my own home with a mortgage. Then I was made redundant while on maternity leave and couldn’t keep up with the payments.

“I ended up in homeless accommodation, but Wheatley helped me get everything sorted. They gave me the chance to start again.”

Wheatley’s work includes:

• allocating up to 60% of new lets each year to homeless households;
• converting 450 temporary furnished homes into permanent residences;
• and providing 428 homes through Housing First, a multi-agency partnership aimed at tackling rough sleeping.

Wheatley is leading the work to help tackle the housing emergency in Scotland through its work with homelessness and one of the UK’s biggest new-build programmes.

The scale of demand remains high. Wheatley currently has nearly 22,000 households on its registration list, including existing tenants seeking to move, new applicants, and young people leaving care.

Meanwhile, Edindex, the housing register for Edinburgh, had over 28,200 households waiting for permanent social housing as of September this year.

Steven Henderson, Chief Executive of Wheatley Group, said: “Everyone deserves a warm, safe, and secure home – and that is at the heart of everything we do at Wheatley.

“Behind each of the 11,000 lets is a person or family being given the opportunity to rebuild their life with dignity and stability.

“As Scotland’s largest provider of affordable housing, Wheatley plays a vital role in supporting the Scottish Government and local authorities to tackle homelessness.

“We’re proud to be increasing the number of lets to homeless people and families and leading from the front in delivering real change across the country.

“This year alone, Wheatley also completed 844 new homes – our highest total since 2018-19 – with more than 550 for social rent and around 280 for mid-market rent.

“We’re committed to building even more next year, with ambitious plans already underway on 19 projects, which will deliver more than 1000 new homes.

“Our efforts were recognised nationally when Wheatley was named the UK’s biggest builder of homes for social rent in 2024, and the top builder of social rent homes in Great Britain over the past decade.

“We are also looking every other option to increase the supply of more homes for rent, including purchasing empty homes and properties for sale on the open market.”