The Scottish Government should strive to ensure 100,000 new homes are built in Scotland over the course of the next parliament, according to the Scottish Conservatives.

Party leader Ruth Davidson said that getting on the housing ladder “shouldn’t be the preserve of the rich, or only for those who can tap the Bank of Mum and Dad”.

Ms Davidson said the Scottish Government must make it easier for houses of all types to be built so that people can find a home for them, and ordinary working families can get on.

The party wants to see a 10 per cent year on year increase which would increase house building from just over 16,000 to more than 26,000 by 2021, adding 109,000 new properties by the end of 2021.

To do so, the party is calling for reforms to restrictive planning laws which deter development, and more government support for infrastructure such as transport links and broadband, which can incentivise new supply of housing.

Ms Davidson said: “Owning your own home should be within the reach of everyone who works hard and does the right thing. That is at the cornerstone of our beliefs.

“The UK government has shown real ambition in setting a target of one million new homes by 2020. We now need to hear a similar sense of ambition from the SNP. And the Scottish Conservatives are going to demand they show it.

“So our manifesto will have include a very clear call – to get Scotland building houses again. We will demand that the Scottish Government sets a clear goal – to ensure levels of house-building in Scotland get back to the rates we saw before the financial crash. That means a target of 25,000 new homes built ever year –over 100,000 new homes over the course of the parliament. This is something both the public and private sector should work to achieve – building homes of all types of tenure.

“What Government needs to do is to make it easier – by smoothing out our planning system, and by supporting infrastructure such as transport links and broadband. As Homes for Scotland points out, 160,000 people are on waiting lists and thousands more are struggling to find a home. We need to act. With political will, we can do this.

“For the sake of the next generation, too many of whom have given up hope of every getting a home of their own, it must be done.”