Responding to NHBC reports that UK house building has hit its highest level for seven years, industry body Homes for Scotland greeted the 9 per cent increase in new home registrations north of the border for July-September compared with the same period a year ago with caution following a sustained period of falls in Scotland.

Chief Executive Philip Hogg (right) said:

"Whilst these statistics are encouraging, we believe this increase will be negatively impacted by this year’s funding for the Scottish Government’s Help to Buy (Scotland) shared equity scheme running out in July and that this will be reflected in future figures towards the end of the year and early 2015.

“Given the scheme generated nearly 5000 reservations and sales in just ten months, this funding interruption resulted in significant business uncertainty as the industry awaited the Scottish Government’s next move.

“Even with the recently announced reduced price ceiling of £250,000, we still suspect that the £100m budget for 2015/16 will be insufficient to last the full year.

“We therefore hope that Help to Buy (Scotland) will benefit from some of the extra £125million housing investment announced in the draft Budget so that builders have the confidence to invest in more much needed housing development.”