NewsArticle-16-04-2010

With campaigning for the general election now well underway, Scottish home building industry leaders today expressed their concern that none of the political parties has set out plans for systematically correcting the fundamental constraint on housing market recovery – the overall availability and terms of mortgage finance.

This follows a meeting of the Board of Homes for Scotland (the organisation which represents companies building 95% of new homes built for sale in Scotland and an increasingly significant proportion of affordable housing) where the issue was high on the agenda.

Chief Executive Jonathan Fair said:

“Whatever the political colour of the next Westminster government, it is vital the major problems of the mortgage market  in both the quantum of funds available and normalising the terms of borrowing – be tackled urgently.  Whilst recent news on Stamp Duty relaxation was welcome, the full benefits of such moves cannot be felt when credit-worthy First Time Buyers are still being expected to find deposits of up to 25%.”

Ends

Notes to Editors:

Homes for Scotland represents the country’s home building industry which, prior to the onset of the credit crunch,:  

• was the largest source of private investment in Scotland and the largest user of the planning system
• built 20,000 new homes, contributed £6bn to the economy and directly impacted the employment of 100,000 people (2007 figures)

Half the industry's directly employed jobs have already been lost and Scottish new build housing output has plummeted, presenting far-reaching and long-term social and economic consequences.

Click here to read Homes for Scotland’s “building for their future” appeal to MPs.