With the Scottish Government highlighting that an annual 9% rise in the total number of starts was mostly driven by private sector-led activity, Chief Executive of trade body Homes for Scotland Nicola Barclay (right) pointed to the vital role that the hugely successful Help to Buy shared equity scheme has to play in building on this momentum to deliver more homes and jobs.

She said:

“With an all-tenure approach crucial to effectively tackling Scotland’s chronic undersupply of housing, these latest statistics indicating that all sectors have shown increases in completions over the last year are welcome.  However, we are still some way off our manifesto call for 10% year-on-year growth to address the backlog of demand and there are a number of uncertainties in the market including the impact of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), the ongoing planning review and more restrictive criteria for Help to Buy going forward.”