​SNP’s poverty of ideas over housing perpetuates the real thing - John McLellan

New housing starts in Scotland have dropped to the lowest level in a decade

But that’s what the SNP expects us to believe, with housing minister Paul McLennan relying on the usual hand washing, by blaming Westminster because of a capital block grant reduction.

To stack up, the presumption must be that house building is entirely reliant on government investment, but most are private sector led, either by commercial builders or independent housing associations working in tandem with private investors.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations points out the fall kicked in before the Scottish Government’s affordable housing budget cut and the figures are stark; 19,632 homes were built in Scotland in the past year, down 4150 from 2022-23, and only 5043 social homes were completed.

Last year’s 6755 new build starts were half that in 2019-20 and the fewest since 2013-14, which the Scottish Tenants Organisation pins squarely on the Scottish Government. New social housing is the lowest since 2012-13, despite waiting lists and homelessness applications – up a third since the pandemic − at an all-time high.

It’s true that government investment has a key role in getting projects moving, but it is by no means the only factor.

The Scottish Labour manifesto correctly identifies a slow and bureaucratic planning system as part of the problem, but its solution is to set up a national planning agency. In other words, more bureaucracy to get in the way.

“If we are to unlock Scotland’s potential, we need to give certainty to investors and developers,” it says, but then shies away from the biggest cause of uncertainty and the real reason house building has flagged so badly, which is Scottish government interference in the markets with the imposition of rent controls.

Rent controls may play well to an audience of social renters, but by demonstrating the government is prepared to attack expected returns when it is politically expedient means investors simply look for more stable markets. It’s one reason student flats, exempt from the rent cap, have become a better alternative.

Disappointingly, so too do the Scottish Conservatives want a national agency, but at least they identify the negative impact of rent controls, the only major party to do so.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats propose a nine-point housing wish-list in a National Housing Plan, but without much by way of practical ideas to stimulate construction.

The SNP manifesto just calls for the UK government to increase the capital block grant, and although housing is a devolved issue and technically not on the general election agenda, that hasn’t stopped the three unionist parties making suggestions despite responsibility for delivery not lying in London.

The Scottish Government aims to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which over two-thirds are meant to be for social rent, but as the SNP is effectively saying it has no idea how this can be done, the housing emergency cannot end while they are in control

When the Edinburgh Poverty Commission and the Joseph Rowntree Trust produced their 2020 report, they were clear poverty could not be properly addressed without tackling the affordable housing shortage.

With nothing to offer but carping about London and stifling badly needed investment, the SNP’s poverty of ideas just perpetuates the real thing.