NewsArticle-18-11-2008

The home building industry has applauded the range of initiatives announced today by Glasgow City Council in order to stimulate much needed development in light of the credit crunch.

The measures unveiled by city council leader Steven Purcell include:

• deferment of requests for the payments companies have to make to develop sites. 
• more flexibility in the way the Council allocates grants for social housing.
• creation of a £36m Better Glasgow Fund to pay for regeneration projects.
• extension of a Business Investment Fund which offers flexible loans to small and medium-sized businesses. 

Jonathan Fair, Chief Executive of Homes for Scotland (right), the organisation which represents companies building 95% of the country’s new homes, said:

“At a time when its receipts from planning applications are down £1m, Glasgow’s decisive action and flexible team-working approach to ensure that investment continues to be made in businesses, homes and jobs is to be congratulated.  With much new development now effectively on hold, this is precisely the sort of action that we have been calling for across Scotland.  

“The challenge now is getting other Local Authorities to follow Glasgow’s bold lead.”

Ends

Enquiries to:

Beth Hocking, Homes for Scotland – 0131 455 8350 
Jennifer Kennedy, Homes for Scotland – 0131 455 8350

Note to Editors:

Homes for Scotland represents the country’s home building industry which:

-  is the largest source of private investment in Scotland
-  is the largest user of the planning system in Scotland
-  last year built 20,000 new homes, contributed £6bn to the economy and directly impacted the employment of 100,000 people