Home builders have welcomed a nine per cent rise in the total number of new homes built across Scotland whilst reinforcing calls for early clarity on the details of the successor to the hugely successful Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme if such an increase is to be maintained.

The positive position for the year to end March 2015 has been driven by an 11 per cent rise in the number of private sector-led completions.

 Philip Hogg, Chief Executive of home building industry body Homes for Scotland (right) commented:

“Whilst these figures represent an overall and welcome move in the right direction to addressing the country’s housing crisis, it should be recognised that this recovery is largely as a result of the current hugely successful Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme.

“In order to maintain this positive momentum, we now need clarity on the qualifying criteria for the recently announced £195m successor to this scheme so that builders can forward plan before the introduction of the new initiative in April 2016.”