Fund manager Hearthstone has said it is in discussions with other Scottish local government pension funds over its Housing Fund for Scotland, which last year set a £150million target following a £30m investment by the Falkirk local authority fund.

The Scottish Government will today announce £6m funding for 126 social homes in Falkirk and Clackmannanshire to help Hearthstone meet its initial target of 300 affordable homes.

The Falkirk scheme is one of 11 local authority pension funds managing over £30billion, which have been lobbied since 2010 by the Scottish Government with a view to unlocking investment in the housing sector.

But it is only the second UK council fund to commit to local housing investment.

Chris Down, director of Hearthstone, said: "Pension funds are becoming more and more interested in making 'impact' investments which affect local infrastructure, and housing is obviously part of their thinking."

Mr Down said UK local authority pension funds managed £200bn. "It is a sizeable pool of capital. They have to think about the financial interests of their members but where two investments are otherwise equal they will seek to be investing at home where they can and will look more and more to housing."

He added: "There is a lot of inertia. Pension funds do move slowly at the best of times, and local government funds even more so, but I think we are getting there."

Last year M & G became the first City institution to invest in the sector in a £45m partnership with the Link housing association. Meanwhile the UK-wide Pensions Infrastructure Platform, first heralded by Chancellor George Osborne in 2010 as the key to releasing billions of pounds for infrastructure investment, is at last beginning to invest part of an initial £500m fund.

One of the platform's seven backers is the £12bn Strathclyde Pension Fund, which has committed £100m to the venture.

Strathclyde was one of the funds approached in 2011 by the then infrastructure secretary Alex Neil with a view to launching a housing fund or bond.

Mr Neil had given a keynote address to the National Association of Pension Funds annual conference in Liverpool in which he appealed for £500m to £1bn of investment into Scotland's 200 housing associations, which he said were backed by £900m a year of long-term rental income. The minister later said the Strathclyde and Calmac funds had indicated their support, however both funds then told The Herald that they had only been "listening" to the proposal.

Mr Neil, now social justice and communities secretary with overall responsibility for housing, said Falkirk's initiative would "act as a trailblazer and encourage other Scottish local authority pension fund trustees to take the plunge and invest in housing".

He commented that pension fund advisers tended to be more conservative than trustees, who tended to believe that "provided they can meet their fiduciary duty they are happy to invest in projects which are of benefit to the wider community".

He said Scotland's population was set to rise from 5.3m to 6m, there were 120,000 council homes needed, yet new home completion had halved to 15,000 a year since the crash. Rents could be set higher on new more energy-efficient homes, which meant that as an investment, "the risk involved is absolutely zilch".

However a spokesman for Strathclyde Pension Fund said: "Strathclyde is certainly interested in housing - for example, we provided a facility to City Legacy during the construction of the Glasgow 2014 Athletes' Village and its subsequent conversion to family homes for housing associations, mid-market rent and private sale - but I understand we've not had any discussions with this particular vehicle."