News article 17/3/2014

(Issued 17 March 2014)

Home builders have called on the Scottish Government for proportionate support following yesterday’s announcement by the Chancellor on the expansion of the Help to Buy shared equity scheme in England by an extra four years and £6bn.

Philip Hogg, Chief Executive of industry body Homes for Scotland said:

“Yesterday’s move by the Chancellor represents an important recognition of the success of the scheme and the need to provide greater certainty to developers, enabling further investment in the building of new homes as well as vital jobs and apprenticeships.

“We were pleased that the Scottish Government listened to our calls last year and agreed to the introduction of Help to Buy (Scotland) last September. This has clearly had a massive impact in terms of increasing both buyer confidence and output as demonstrated by recent independent statistics. Indeed, indications are that take-up north of the border is actually greater than in England.

“Whilst we await the detail of Wednesday’s budget, it is essential that the Scottish Government continues to address the dramatic housing shortage facing Scotland by channeling any consequential funding into providing comparable levels of support to ensure that buyers and builders here are not disadvantaged.”