Scotland's housing budget is to be cut by more than £200 million next year under plans unveiled today by Shona Robison.

The move comes amid growing fears over the housing supply and was condemned by organisations supporting the homeless and people seeking affordable homes.

One organisation in the sector warned the cut would mean minsters would not meet their targets on building affordable homes.

The deputy first minster, who is also finance secretary, did not announce the sum during her statement to MSPs today.

However, the figure emerged - along with cutbacks in other areas including public transport - in official documents published this afternoon. 

They revealed that the Scottish Government was proposing a reduction in spending to housing and building standards from £738m this year to £533m - or £205m - next year. It includes a cut of almost £190m to housebuilding.

Spending on planning will also be cut by 43% under the plans.

The move comes a week after it emerged that thousands of families are preparing to spend Christmas in temporary homes.

Parents with children who declare themselves homeless in some parts of the country can now face a wait of more than a year before a permanent residence is found for them.

In Edinburgh, the average wait for families is 611 days - the highest in Scotland - while those in Glasgow wait 381 days.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFH) said the cut to affordable housebuilding programme will have ‘devastating’ consequences and warned that the Scottish Government’s target of building 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 would be missed as a result.

The budget also saw the Fuel Insecurity Fund, used to support social tenants who are unable to afford energy costs, scrapped. 

SFHA Chief Executive Sally Thomas said: “Today’s budget is an absolute hammer blow for tackling homelessness and poverty across Scotland and will have long-lasting consequences for the nearly 250,000 people throughout Scotland stuck on a waiting list for a social home, as well as for existing tenants and the housing associations which support them. 

“More social homes quite simply mean fewer children growing up in poverty. Over 20,000 children in Scotland are kept out of poverty because of social housing. It is therefore devastating that the First Minister would abandon his defining mission to tackle poverty by failing to support people who need social homes. It is the worst possible budget at the worst possible time.” 

Chief Executive of home building sector body Homes for Scotland Jane Wood said: “We were prepared for a tough budget but, in the context of three local authorities having declared housing emergencies this year, the level of cuts we have seen across both the Affordable Housing Supply Programme and the planning system this afternoon is quite shocking. 

“Coming on the back of last week’s statistics showing that the chronic undersupply of housing is intensifying, this not only threatens Scotland’s social wellbeing by perpetuating housing inequality but also its economic success and the transition to net zero. 

“As we continue to highlight, private and affordable housing delivery are interconnected.  With 30% of affordable housing generated by the private sector, the more homes for sale that can be built, the more affordable homes will be available.  Given the planning system is already on its knees, a cut of the magnitude announced today will serve only to increase delay and cost and do nothing to encourage crucial private sector investment.

“Indeed, we have spent a large part of this year flagging concerns to the Scottish Government that its policies are acting as a deterrent to investment.  There is clear evidence now on the impact that the increasingly divergent policies are having on the attractiveness of Scotland as a place to invest in, these budget implications do nothing to mitigate that nor to ensure the housing needs of Scotland’s people are met.”

Shelter Scotland said the consequences of the cuts to the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, which funds the delivery of social housing, would be ‘devastating.’  

Director Alison Watson said: “In the run up to this budget ministers talked a lot about the ‘hard choices’ they would have to make.  

“Now that they have made those choices, they cannot shy away from their devastating consequences. 

“If there is money for a council tax freeze then there should be money for homelessness services, if there is money to build bigger roads there should be money to build social homes.  

“Instead of rising to the challenge of ending Scotland’s housing emergency the Scottish Government has chosen to make it worse.  

“They have chosen to cut local homelessness services a few weeks after the Scottish Housing Regulator warned that twelve local authorities were currently experiencing systemic failure in their homelessness services.  

“They have chosen to slash the budget for new homes by 33% only a month after Glasgow and Edinburgh Councils declared a housing emergency.  

“Only the Scottish Government can decide how much money is spent on ending the housing emergency and they have got those decisions badly wrong.” 

In her statement to parliament, Ms Robison said that at the heart of the Scottish Government's budget is the "social contract" with the people of Scotland.

She said: "This is a Government committed to equality through tackling poverty and protecting people from harm.

"At the heart of this budget is our social contract with the people of Scotland where those with the broadest shoulders are asked to contribute a little more.

"Where everyone can have access to universal services and entitlements - and those in need of an extra helping hand will receive targeted additional support.

"This is what we mean when, in the face of Westminster austerity, we say we will always stand up for Scotland."

While devolution has brought benefits to Scotland, the Deputy First Minister said the Government was "fighting austerity with one hand tied behind our back".

She said: "Devolution has brought many benefits, but it has also exposed quite how beholden we are to the decisions of Westminster. We are fighting Westminster austerity with one hand tied behind our back.

"In today's budget the Scottish Government has no say on corporation tax; no powers to mandate the real living wage for all; no ability to consider windfall levies on excess profits; and no options on wealth taxes like capital gains tax.

"Last month's autumn statement was a worst-case scenario for Scotland.

"A fiscal settlement from the UK Government that undermines the viability of public services across the whole of the UK, including here in Scotland."

The Deputy First Minister also took aim at the Chancellor's tax-cutting agenda.

"Under his own fiscal rules, the Chancellor could have invested £27 billion more in core services and critical national infrastructure - but he didn't," she said.

Speaking to reporters after her statement to parliament, Ms Robison was pressed on the housing cuts.

She said it was a challenge because of the capital cuts to the Scottish Budget following the Chancellor's autumn statement.

She said: "So, a 10% cut to capital over five years is going to have an impact. 

"This next year we had to prioritise contractual commitments, so things that were in the pipeline that we had to finish.

"When you think about construction inflation and all of the costs, it's had an impact across all of our budgets, but I'll say this, we remain committed to £3bn invested. 

"We remain committed to our affordable housing programme, but we will need to look at how we lever in additional resources. 

"We're looking at innovative finance about how we can do that to make sure we can deliver the affordable housing that we need. 

"We've got a good track record of delivering on affordable housing" 

"We've delivered about 115,000 affordable homes over the last period of time But we need to do more and we will set that out in due course of how we're going to lever in that additional money."