The event titled Breaking New Ground - Quality and Quantity was organised by Fife Council’s economy planning and employability service with Kevin Stewart MSP, minister for local government and housing, delivering the key note address.

Speakers at this year’s event showcased recent developments and debated the current challenges within the industry. Robin Presswood, head of service for economy planning and employability services, began the event with a review of the housing completions of the last year and highlighted the increase was largely due to the success of the affordable housing programme. Garry Nicoll, building standards and public safety, showed how Fife Council are modernising the Building Standards function though the introduction of the eBuildingStandards.scot service and the benefits this brings to house builders.

Brian Pettigrew of Robertson Partnership Homes presented some of the great public and private partnership working that is currently happening to deliver the affordable housing programme at sites in Methil and Kirkcaldy and William McBride of the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre provided an insight into the benefits of innovative thinking across all aspects of the construction industry.

Councillor Lesley Laird, deputy leader and executive spokesperson for economy and planning, who also spoke at the event, remarked: “Fife’s House Builders Forum is a great opportunity for industry professionals to come together and it is encouraging that the event is so well attended by all sectors of the industry. This year’s event showcased some of the great partnership working that is happening right now to deliver Fife’s record breaking affordable housing programme and challenging us to drive innovation across the industry to remove barriers to development.

“Everyone wants certainty, so it is important for public and private sectors to continue to work together and for all of us to engage much better with communities. If we want to realise our ambitions for increased housing development then the key to unlocking that has to be finance for infrastructure.”

The event was closed by Kevin Stewart MSP who remarked: “The Scottish Government has committed to enable increased private sector housing solutions and to deliver 50,000 more affordable homes over the next five years, backed up with investment of more than £3 billion. To achieve this will require everyone in the industry working together and events like this in Fife will help in delivering that pledge.

“Fife has already seen some of these benefits. From April 2008 to March 2016, around £100 million of Scottish Government funding has been spent in Fife supporting the construction of close to 2,000 affordable houses and flats. This has provided a range of housing in a mix of affordable tenures. As we look forward, for the 3 year period from 2016 to 2019, the Scottish Government minimum investment will be close to £50m in Fife.”