Scotland’s housing emergency deepens as housebuilding falls to record low

Housebuilding in Scotland has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with the number of homes completed at its lowest level since 2015 and new starts at their lowest level since 2013.

New data released by the Scottish government shows that housebuilding activity in Scotland has slowed, with fewer social and new-build homes being delivered.

The Scottish Conservatives have said the figures are a damning indictment of the SNP’s record on housing.

Social homes being built remains low

According to the data, housebuilding activity was lower than the previous year, with completions falling by 11%, 2,123 fewer homes, while new starts fell by 2%, representing 272 fewer homes.

In the private sector, 13,574 homes were completed and 11,842 homes were started. Compared with the previous year, private-sector completions fell by 7% (987 fewer homes), while starts fell by 8% (1,026 fewer homes).

The data also reveals that the number of social homes being built in Scotland remains well below the minimum 15,693 homes a year estimated to be needed to start reducing homelessness.

Just 5,353 social homes were completed in the past 12 months, as part of a total of 6,772 affordable homes.

Devastating indictment of the SNP’s housing record

Scottish Conservative housing spokesman, James Adams MSP, told Property118: “These figures are a devastating indictment of the SNP’s housing record.

“Families across Scotland are desperate for affordable homes, but the SNP are presiding over a total collapse in housebuilding.

“Years of SNP mismanagement, tax hike, anti-development policies and red tape have created a housing emergency which is continuing to escalate.

“Shirley-Anne Somerville has inherited this mess, but she cannot simply defend the same approach from her predecessors that has helped drive housebuilding in completely the wrong direction.

“She needs to cut the red tape, tear down the barriers to development and make building homes a priority, because families cannot afford another year of the SNP being asleep at the wheel.”

Children experiencing homelessness

Gordon Llewellyn-MacRae, interim director at Shelter Scotland, said more children are experiencing homelessness in Scotland because there are not enough social homes.

He said: “We are simply not building enough social homes or investing enough, while record numbers of children wake up without a home. It is an outrage. Decades of underinvestment and poor political choices have led us here. We can’t promise or blame our way out of the housing emergency, we have to build our way out.

“Homelessness is not inevitable, ending it means building more social homes, more quickly. Without that, families will remain trapped in limbo. That means families of five, living in one hotel room for two months, with nowhere to cook or for children to play. While the longer-term stats show some signs of recovery, very slow progress over the last three months can’t be ignored.

“Social house building is simply too slow to tackle the housing emergency. To turn the tide, the Scottish government must do three things: Unlock exceptional funding and ambition in December’s Budget to match the scale of the housing emergency; ensure delivering social homes to tackle homelessness is at the heart of the new More Homes Scotland agency; and introduce immediate measures to support the areas hit hardest. Without this, they are accepting homelessness will rise and more children will be stuck in temporary accommodation.”