Rise In New Homes For Scotland

First increase in new housing supply for six years, but charity says more must be done.

The number of new homes in Scotland is up by 7% in one year.

It's the first annual increase since before the recession.

Almost 16, 000 properties were delivered in the year to March, compared to more than 14, 000 in 2013.

Private sector house building and housing association rehabilitations accounted for the largest share of the growth.

Housing Minister Margaret Burgess said:

"It is encouraging to see that the number of new homes in Scotland has risen in the last year, driven in large part by an increase in the number of private sector completions.

"This is the first annual increase since before the recession, reflecting the growing confidence within the housing market, which the Scottish Government has helped to stimulate through investment in initiatives designed to support the sector, and help people into home ownership.

"Nonetheless, new housing supply remains well below pre-recession levels and I recognise that the house building industry continues to face a number of challenges. We are committed to working with organisations across the housing sector to address these, and work towards the shared goal of securing a sustained increase in housing supply.

"While we are making progress, the powers of independence would provide full flexibility over budgets, investment and innovative financing, allowing us to do even more to support the supply of new homes."

Mrs Burgess continued:

"The statistics also confirm that our Affordable Homes Supply Programme is performing strongly, with completions, approvals and new starts all up on the previous year.

"Since 2011 we have delivered more than 21,000 new affordable homes, bringing us over two-thirds of the way towards our five-year target of 30,000 new homes. We have also delivered over 15,000 homes for social rent, bringing us three quarters of the way towards our five-year target of 20,000 new homes.

"Council house building figures are at a 25-year high in the year to March 2014, with 1,140 new council houses built in Scotland. Over 4000 new council houses have been delivered through the Scottish Government’s Council House Building Programme since 2009.

"The supply of affordable housing continues to be a high priority for us, and we are working with the entire sector to increase the supply of affordable homes and deliver vital support for construction and house building companies throughout Scotland.

"This commitment is underlined by our £1.7 billion investment in affordable housing over the current parliamentary term, supporting an estimated 8,000 jobs each year."

Commenting on today's Housing Statistics for Scotland 2014, Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, says:
 
"The rise in the number of new houses being built is welcome and is a step in the right direction.
 
"However, coming hard on the heels of yesterday’s Poverty and Social Exclusion project report saying that one million Scots cannot afford adequate housing, these figures show that the Scottish Government is still only scratching the surface of the problem.
 
"To bring hope to the 155,100 people currently on local authority housing waiting lists, the Scottish Government needs to increase the scale of its ambition and commit to funding at least 10,000 new socially rented homes a year to meet the backlog and increased demand.
 
"Until that happens, with demand outstripping supply, there is still the potential for rents and house prices to rise faster than people’s income, making housing less affordable for more people."