The SNP Government has been accused of fuelling Scotland’s housing emergency as housebuilding across the country continues to plummet.
The number of affordable homes being built in the past year is at its lowest level in more than a decade, official figures out today show.
It comes at a time a dozen local authorities have so far declared housing emergencies, meaning they cannot find homes for the rising numbers declaring themselves homeless in their area.
The total number of affordable homebuilding starts in Scotland was 5,925 in the year up to September – the lowest level since 2013.
The figures mean social housebuilding starts are at their joint lowest level in 20 years, while completions are at their lowest level since 2017.
Mark Griffin, Scottish Labour housing spokesman, said: “Countless Scots are suffering as a result of Scotland’s housing emergency, but under the SNP housebuilding is plummeting.
“From record levels of homelessness to soaring rents and house prices, the consequences of Scotland’s housing shortage are clear to see – but the SNP is fuelling this crisis instead of fixing it.
“We need to be building more houses and the SNP’s failure to do so is catastrophic incompetence.
“The SNP must get a grip of this crisis and reform our planning system, deal with skills shortages and get housebuilding back on track.”
Housebuilding across the entire sector fell over the past year, with starts down 12 per cent and competitions down 10 per cent.
The number of social homes being completed decreased by more than a quarter while starts stayed broadly the same.
It comes at a time increasing number of Scots are declaring themselves homeless and rough sleeping becomes a growing issue in cities.
Around 10,000 children are living in temporary accommodation with their families due to a drastic shortage of affordable homes, particularly in and around Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The Scottish Government finally announced it would reverse a £196m cut to its affordable housing budget this month following repeated calls from this newspaper and charities working with the homeless.
SNP ministers have a target to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 70 per cent of which must be for social rent. As of September, 24,382 of these homes have been built.
Paul McLennan, the SNP Housing Minister, tried to play down the scale of the crisis.
He claimed the statistics showed the Scottish Government’s “strong track record” on delivering affordable housing, 135,000 of which have been built since 2007.
“That is 47 per cent more per head of population than England and 73 per cent more than Wales,” he said. “We will continue to build on that record by increasing the affordable housing budget by over £200 million next year to £768 million, but the only way to unlock that funding is for parliament to back the budget.
“We are continuing to deliver affordable homes in innovative ways and I have seen the difference our Charitable Bonds programme, which is a type of loan given to registered social landlords, has made to delivering homes in one development in Wallyford.
“Building on the success of the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership that has helped almost 11,000 empty properties become homes since 2010, next year we will invest £2 million into bringing more privately owned, empty homes back into use.
“We are also focused on working with partner organisations to identify how our planning system can help to provide these solutions.”
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