Propertymark has urged the Scottish National Party (SNP) to provide more clarity over its plans to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, ahead of its 89th Annual Party Conference.
In response to Shelter Scotland’s latest call for the Scottish Government to build more homes, Scottish Housing Minister Paul McLennan recently said: “Tackling homelessness is a key priority for the Scottish Government and our Ending Homelessness Together action plan, developed with expert input, is the right strategy to end homelessness in Scotland.
“We are making available £3.5bn over this parliamentary term to support delivery of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 70% of which will be for social rent and £538m of that will be available for Glasgow.
“This includes investing at least £60m to help local authorities and registered social landlords acquire properties for use as high quality, affordable, permanent homes.”
First Minister Humza Yousaf stated in July that his administration intended to make approximately £60m available to councils and social landlords to buy empty and private sector houses.
Additional measures announced in July to slash the demand will include working with social landlords to boost allocations to homeless households and providing national guidance for local authorities to support good practice around changing temporary accommodation into permanent and affordable homes.
However, the SNP’s Inverness branch proposed a motion to introduce a ‘Rural New Entrant’s Fund’, to support young people to access land to address land supply issues.
Nathan Emerson, CEO at Propertymark, said: “Propertymark welcomes the SNP’s plans to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, but the question remains how they intend to deliver that plan. There has been no clarity over that yet.
“SNP policy on housing continues to evolve, and we hope that the SNP’s annual conference will be their opportunity to explain how they intend to deliver their ambitious housing vision for Scotland.”
