‘Homes Build Futures’, the first public campaign by the sector body, received the Public Affairs award at this year’s Scottish DARE Awards which is run by the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA).

The campaign was developed in partnership with Muckle Media ahead of the Scottish Parliament election which took place on 7 May.

The concept arose from the Scottish Parliament’s declaration of a national housing emergency in May 2024, the scale of which is evidenced by:

• 693,000 Scots households facing some form of housing need
• numbers in temporary accommodation at record highs, including 10,180 children
• 250,000 people on housing waiting lists
• an accumulated shortfall of more than 110,000 homes since 2008
• ongoing falls in the number of new homes being built across all tenures.

With the chronic undersupply of housing impacting everyone, whether directly or indirectly through family members, friends and colleagues, key objectives were to inform, educate and storytell from within and across civic society in order to challenge the status quo, mobilise the public to be advocates for more homes and drive positive, outcome-focused dialogue with policymakers.

HFS chief executive Jane Wood said: “We are tremendously proud that the Homes Build Futures campaign has been recognised with this prestigious award, especially as this is the first time we have undertaken such a project.

“Although everyone is affected by the national housing emergency, it is our young people and future generations that will suffer most if action isn’t taken now so it was critically important to us that this came through in the creative. Thanks to our partners at Muckle Media, it most definitely did.

“Judges praised the framing of the issue as one shared across society and generations with a story backdrop that worked really well in capturing imagination.”

One of the young stars of the campaign was Eimear O’Leary (9) from Edinburgh who said: “We have been learning about rights in school and having a safe home should be a right for every child. Having a home means that you have a safe and secure place to be with your family.

“It’s also somewhere you can do your homework and invite your friends to play. Some children don’t have this and that makes me really sad. I’m happy to support this campaign so that we can have enough homes for everyone.”

Architect and TV presenter George Clarke also got behind the campaign saying: “While having a place to call a home is about so much more than bricks and mortar, the stark reality is that so many people across the country are unable to even begin to dream of what it’s like to have their own home as simply not enough houses are being built.

“Importantly, delivering the homes we need has wide-ranging positive impacts. As well as providing roofs over heads, they support improved health and education outcomes, jobs, skills and the economy. For every new home built, three and half jobs are supported.”

Nathalie Agnew, managing director at Muckle Media, said: “We were so inspired when we received the brief from Homes for Scotland. One of our core values is to leave the world in a better place so this was a cause we were eager to support. We loved collaborating with the Homes for Scotland in-house team and are delighted the meaningful impact our creative campaign delivered has been recognised by the award judges.”