Miles Briggs MSP

In response to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the party on new home statistics, the Scottish Government admitted: “We have not undertaken any internal work on estimating the number of houses that would be built in Scotland in the future.”

The revelation comes against the backdrop of a £200 million cut from the affordable housing budget and a sharp decline in the number of completed new homes.

The number of new homes started and completed has fallen in the past year. In 2023, there were 20,992 all-sector new build home completions – down by 2,701, or 11%. And builders started work on 16,017 new homes in Scotland, 5,009 fewer (24%) than 2022.

Scottish Conservative housing secretary Miles Briggs MSP said: “The SNP have finally admitted what we have long suspected – that they are literally clueless when it comes to housing.

“It’s astonishing when Scotland is in the midst of a housing crisis that they have no idea how many houses will be built in the coming months and years.

“Perhaps, after failing to meet previous housing targets, this is the SNP Government’s way of evading further scrutiny of their abysmal record.

“Five Scottish councils have declared housing emergencies, thousands of Scots have been left languishing in social housing – including children and people with disabilities – and homelessness levels have soared.

“And, with Shona Robison slashing over £200m in cash terms from the housing budget in her disastrous tax-and-axe budget, things are only set to get worse for hard-pressed and vulnerable Scots.”

Housing minister Paul McLennan said: “Scotland has led the UK in housing by delivering more than 128,000 affordable homes since 2007. We are investing nearly £600 million in affordable housing this financial year, the majority of which will be for social rent.

“The UK Government failed to inflation-proof their capital budget, and this has resulted in nearly a 10% real terms cut in our UK capital funding between 2023-24 and 2027-28. Likewise our Financial Transactions budget – key to delivering affordable housing – has been cut by 62%.

“We remain focused on delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 and to support that we will bring forward the review scheduled for 2026-27 to 2024, which will concentrate on deliverability. We are working with the financial community in Scotland, and elsewhere, to boost private sector investment and help deliver more homes.”