Scot Lib Dems to get housebuilding back up to 25,000 new homes a year
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today launched his party’s plans to give everyone a warm, safe and affordable place to live, and compared it to the record of the SNP and Greens who together cut £200m from the housing budget in the middle of a housing crisis.
In their forthcoming manifesto, Scottish Liberal Democrats will commit to tackle Scotland’s housing emergency head-on by:
- Returning housebuilding to a level that will get an average of 25,000 homes built each year, supporting 87,000 high quality jobs.
- Developing a new programme for Net Zero New Towns, prioritising from the outset features such as rail links, biodiversity and district heating.
- Introducing a Help to Renovate loan scheme to bring neglected properties back into use.
- Reforming planning, making it less arduous and delivering badly-needed infrastructure and economic growth with more planning officers and investment in digital tools that help speed up decision-making.
Alex Cole-Hamilton said:
“We will help you live close to where you need to be, whether it’s for work, family or because it’s where you belong. Everyone deserves a warm, safe, affordable place to live.
“However, under the SNP homelessness has reached record levels. Thousands of children are stuck in temporary accommodation. Affordable housebuilding has collapsed. Too many young professionals are finding that they have no choice but to live at home with their parents.
“The situation has been worsened by skills shortages, Brexit, Liz Truss causing mortgage rates to soar, and the SNP and Greens together cutting £200 million from the affordable homes budget during a housing emergency. Only the Scottish Liberal Democrats both voted against that cut and put the money back in the budget the following year.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats will tackle Scotland’s housing emergency head-on by building more homes and reforming planning so that it is easier to build the homes and infrastructure that we so badly need.”