Scottish Government claims affordable homes target exceeded

The Scottish Government has today announced it has exceeded its five-year target of delivering 30,000 affordable homes by March 2016, funded by £1.7 billion.

As part of the target, the Scottish Government pledged to deliver 20,000 social rented homes including 5,000 council homes, both of which have also been exceeded.

Speaking ahead of a housing debate in the Scottish Parliament, Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil said: “I am delighted that we have now met our commitment to deliver 30,000 affordable homes ahead of our target date of March 2016.

“We believe in a Fairer Scotland for all and good quality affordable housing is central to making that a reality.

“Despite a challenging financial environment, we have invested in excess of £1.7 billion to meet the target, reintroduced council house building and protected existing housing stock through abolishing the right to buy.

“High quality, energy efficient, affordable homes form the cornerstone of socially and economically sustainable communities.

“We have worked hard with the housing sector to deliver these homes as well as develop innovative funding initiatives, such as government guarantees, loans, grant recycling and new sources of private funding, to help both buyers and developers.”

This announcement is based on “live” administrative data from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme. Formal confirmation of meeting the targets and by how much they have been exceeded will follow in the regular quarterly publications of Official Statistics with the next release due on 1st December.