50,000 homes pledge

19th November 2015

Affordable homes to tackle housing shortage.

Housing Minister Margaret Burgess has today pledged to invest £3 billion to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes over the next five years.

The new target is a 67 per cent increase in affordable housing supply with 70 per cent of the new target being for social rent.

The extra homes are expected to support, on average, around 20,000 jobs per year and generate in excess of £10 billion in economic activity over the course of the Parliament.

The commitment comes the day after the Scottish Government announced that it has exceeded its existing five-year target delivering 30,000 affordable homes.

Addressing MSPs during a housing debate in the Scottish Parliament, Mrs Burgess said: We have a good record on housing. In this parliament, we had a target of building 30,000 affordable homes and have exceeded that.

We also started a new generation of council house building and taken steps to safeguard social housing for the future by abolishing the right to buy.

A key commitment is to increase the supply of affordable homes still further. Our target will be to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes, which will be backed by at least £3 billion of investment.

Housing is a key priority for this government and is fundamental to tackling poverty. We are determined to work with the entire housing sector to ensure that we deliver more quality affordable homes that people and our communities need.