Commenting on the Scottish Government announcement that they will invest £30m in council housing and ‘leverage’ a further £90m from local authorities, Liberal Democrat Housing spokesman Jamie Stone said:

“This is a welcome announcement but long overdue.

“Local councils are carrying a significant financial burden at the moment so the Government will need to make sure they have access to finance to keep up their end of the bargain.

“More council house building is welcome, but this Government has got to help housing associations in their efforts to provide more affordable housing.

“Housing associations are locally owned and run, providing a service that residents want and need.

”When the previous Liberal Democrat-Labour administration was in government, we built 35,000 housing association properties.”