Greene reveals gobsmacking SNP failures on housing

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Jamie Greene MSP has today revealed that the Scottish Government have repeatedly failed to spend their budget for building new homes, despite homelessness reaching record levels and dramatic falls in the number of affordable housing units under construction.

In a parliamentary question, Mr Greene asked the Scottish Government for the total underspend in its housing capital budgets since 2007, and what assessment it has made of how any underspend has affected affordable home delivery.

The cumulative underspends in the last four years come to a total of £376m, including £44m in 203/24, the last year for which figures were available.

The most recent homelessness statistics show more households (16,634) and children (10,360) in temporary accommodation than ever before, as well as record numbers of open homelessness applications.

Commenting on the figures, Jamie Greene MSP said:

"This is a gobsmacking amount of money for the housing sector to have missed out on when tens of thousands of Scots don't have a permanent place to live.

"When I speak with Scottish housebuilders they are dripping with contempt for how SNP ministers have handled this issue in recent years.

“The number of new builds started and completed is down and approvals for affordable housing have plummeted.

“The new Housing Secretary doesn’t seem to have any answer about the impact that her government’s failures have had on the delivery of affordable housing.

"Mairi McAllan will have an uphill battle to convince Scots that she can get houses built. Scottish Liberal Democrats got the SNP Government to reverse its cuts to affordable housing in this year’s budget, but now it’s time to actually spend that money and get shovels in the ground."