The Scottish Government statistics showed work had started on 3,031 social homes in the last year, the lowest since the record opened in 1997.
The figures also revealed 6,582 social and affordable homes were built under the Scottish Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme in the last year, which is considerably fewer than half the amount experts say is required.
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, which represents the country’s housing associations and co-operatives, provided research with CIH Scotland and Shelter Scotland showing Scotland requires to build over 15,000 social and affordable homes per year across the next parliament to meet housing need.
Richard Meade, SFHA chief executive, said the Scottish Government “must arrest this collapse in housebuilding urgently”.
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Jane Wood, chief executive of sector body Homes for Scotland, representing organisations which together provide the vast majority of all new homes built across the country, said: “It is deeply concerning that both private and social sector home building are now at or near historic lows.
“Without a significant uplift in overall supply there is no credible route to addressing the housing needs of this and future generations, tackling affordability pressures and supporting economic.”
There was a debate on the issue during First Minister’s Questions.
Mr Swinney said the SNP Government is “increasing the investment that’s available for housing”, adding “with the increased budget the Government has put in place, there has been a 61% increase in the last quarter in the number of approvals for affordable housing, and that’s resulted in an 18% increase in the number of starts in the July to September period”.
The increase in approvals referenced by Mr Swinney relates to a rise from 889 in the third quarter of last year to 1,431 in the third quarter of this year.
There were mixed fortunes for housing in one city this week. Almost 1,000 build-to-rent homes were approved for the western perimeter of Edinburgh next to the airport, 35% of which will be affordable, while plans for 315 new homes, including 108 affordable homes and 591 student flats in the city centre were rejected.
Ross McNulty, the development director at Ediston Real Estate, which is managing the development process of the latter, the New Town Quarter, said: “We can’t help but observe that the committee missed an opportunity that would have delivered many new homes quickly that would help tackle the housing emergency.”
Also this week, Business Editor Ian McConnell shone a light on the statistics behind the celebrations of the new UK Government victory in commerce.
He wrote: “It was difficult not to be irritated this week as the Labour Government trumpeted its ‘upgraded’ free trade deal with South Korea, with Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander among those fawning over it.”
He added: “The overall boost to the UK economy from the upgraded free trade deal with South Korea appears negligible.”
Elsewhere, Deputy Business Editor Scott Wright wrote of changes to celebrity chef Nick Nairn’s long-term collaboration with a famous Scottish hotel, while Business Correspondent Kristy Dorsey revealed plumbing and heating apprenticeships in Scotland look set to fall sharply as new research shows that one in three employers plans a recruitment moratorium in her Business Insight analysis.
