MASTER builders have called for a "diverse mix of new homes" to be built to make up the Scottish Government's plan for 50,000 new houses in five years.
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) Scotland claimed a decline in Scottish house building highlights the importance of building more homes of all kinds, in response to new analysis from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
Gordon Nelson, director of FMB Scotland, said: “The Scottish Government has demonstrated a welcome commitment to house building, and it is right to highlight its successes in maintaining a high level of new affordable housing.
"However, this does not overshadow what seems to be a generally stagnating wider market.
"Scotland was the only part of the UK to see overall housing completions decline year-on-year in 2015/16 when compared to 2014/15, and it is this lack of supply that is driving house price inflation and exacerbating affordability problems.
"Affordable housing is undoubtedly critical, but it needs to be part of a diverse mix of new homes.”
Mr Nelson continued: "It is vital that the Scottish Government finds a way to stimulate the SME house building sector to increase housing of all tenures.
"Many of the reforms and changes that smaller developers are calling for would come at little or no extra cost to the taxpayer and could facilitate a resurgence of smaller, locally-based house builders."
Ruth Maguire, SNP MSP who sits on Holyrood’s local government and communities committee, said that "with the Scottish Government’s budget committing £470 million of direct capital
investment this year to begin the delivery of 50,000 affordable homes over the course of this parliament backed by £3 billion of funding, it is clear that the SNP remains steadfast in our efforts to keep growing the housing supply across Scotland".
She said: "Since the SNP has been in power, Scotland’s affordable sector has been consistently outstripping building activity in the rest of the UK.
"In 2015/16, 41 per cent of new completions in Scotland were affordable homes, compared with 16 per cent in England, and in every year since the SNP came to power, Scotland has outperformed England on social sector completions as a proportion of all new homes."
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