NewsArticle-27-01-2009

Welcoming today’s Scottish Government announcement on the £17m of accelerated funding to allow housing associations to purchase unsold private sector stock and land on which future affordable housing can be built, the home building industry remains concerned that this is insufficient to bridge the widening gap between demand and new housing supply.

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

“Today’s announcement demonstrates that the action taken by the Scottish Government to ease the challenges facing one of the country’s most important industries and increase the supply of affordable housing is delivering on the ground.  With the number of new home starts having plummeted during 2008, this accelerated investment is vital if we are to retain the skills and experience necessary to respond once market conditions improve.  

“The reality, however, is that the supply of new homes will remain constrained until the overall availability of mortgage finance improves. We are therefore continuing to urge the Scottish Government to accelerate housing investment and expand these programmes wherever possible to ensure the benefits are felt by the wider economy.” 

Ends

Enquiries to:

Jennifer Kennedy, Homes for Scotland – 0131 455 8350 / 07763 240694

Notes to Editors:

1. 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
-  in 2007 built 20,000 new homes, contributed £6bn to the economy and directly impacted the employment of 100,000 people

2. Today’s announcement represents the third tranche of funding from the now £120m being brought forward within the Scottish Government’s “Affordable Housing Investment Programme”, part of a package of measures designed to enable private developers and housing associations to work together to increase the provision of homes across Scotland.