Higher proportion of new builds are affordable housing in Scotland

Ruth Maguire
Ruth Maguire

Scotland is leading the way in the UK in building affordable and social rented housing, the SNP has claimed following the publication of new figures from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).

A larger proportion of Scotland’s new home completions are affordable or social rented housing than in England, the SNP said.

In 2015-16, 41 per cent of new home completions in Scotland were affordable homes, compared to only 16 per cent in England. In the same year, 22 per cent of new home completions were social rented homes, compared to only 20 per cent in England.

Table 1: New affordable homes as a % of all new homes

England

%

Wales

%

Scotland

%

Northern Ireland

%

2007-08

20

22

2008-09

36

30

2009-10

44

38

47

2010-11

52

45

44

23

2011-12

44

44

43

23

2012-13

34

37

43

23

2013-14

31

41

47

37

2014-15

47

36

44

30

2015-16

16

35

41

22

Table 2: Social sector completions as a % of all new homes

England

Scotland

Year

Social sector completions

% of all new homes

Social sector completions

% of all new homes

2007-08

23,440

14

4,130

16

2008-09

27,180

19

4,920

23

2009-10

26,890

22

5,990

35

2010-11

24,690

23

5,720

35

2011-12

29,420

25

5,890

37

2012-13

23,420

22

4,200

30

2013-14

22,700

20

4,050

27

2014-15

28,380

23

4,220

26

2015-16

28,290

20

3,460

22

SNP MSP Ruth Maguire, who sits on Holyrood’s local government and communities committee, said: “These figures show once again that it is the SNP leading the way across the UK in providing a supply of new, warm, affordable homes.

“Whilst the Tories at Westminster are presiding over a housing crisis south of the border, the Scottish Government is taking decisive action to build more houses.

“Since the SNP has been in power, Scotland’s affordable sector has been consistently outstripping building activity in the rest of the UK. In 2015/16, 41% of new completions in Scotland were affordable homes, compared with 16% in England – and in every year since the SNP came to power, Scotland has outperformed England on social sector completions as a proportion of all new homes.

“And with the Scottish Government’s budget committing £470 million of direct capital investment this year to begin the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes over the course of this parliament backed by £3 billion of funding, it is clear that the SNP remains steadfast in our efforts to keep growing the housing supply across Scotland.”

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