Responding to yesterday’s Scottish Budget announcement, Nicola Barclay, Chief Executive of industry body Homes for Scotland, said:

“With recent HFS analysis of housing starts and completions having revealed significant variations across regions and tenures, both social and private home builders require longer term certainty of funding and policy direction post-2021 if the delivery momentum of much needed new homes of all types is to be sustained beyond the deadline for the Scottish Government’s 50,000 affordable housing target.  Investment decision-making and build programming require a much longer timeframe than one financial year.

“Given the climate emergency, we also need to see greater government recognition of the superior energy performance new homes already offer, and we look forward to working with them to set out a clear road map to net zero carbon, in conjunction with energy suppliers and the wider supply chain.”