LORD Willie Haughey has announced that his ambitious plans to spend more than £1 billion on building 11,000 affordable homes in Scotland as part of efforts to tackle shortages and transform the housing market are on hold.

Speaking on the Go Radio Business Show with Hunter & Haughey yesterday, Lord Haughey shocked his fellow entrepreneur and co-presenter Sir Tom Hunter when he said that two things had led him to reach his decision: the spiralling cost of bricks and Green MSP Patrick Harvie’s rent freeze bill.

Holyrood on Thursday passed controversial legislation that will freeze rents and ban evictions for most tenants for at least six months and potentially 18, after MSPs voted by 89 to 27 in favour of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Scotland Bill following an intense three days of debate and amendments.

Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights Patrick Harvie’s bill was the first to be led through a parliament by a Green minister anywhere in the UK.

Lord Haughey, who unveiled his housing project last year after striking a deal to sell a 24 per cent stake in his family-owned City Facilities Management Holdings business to Scottish property group Ediston for £640 million, told the show: “I planned over the next 10 years to build 11,000 houses – houses that people can be proud of.

“I was trying to build communities and I wanted to build 1,200sqft homes that people would rent for about £695 per month with maintenance bills included to help people keep their energy costs down.”

The Glasgow-based entrepreneur and Labour peer last year told the Go Radio Business Show that he spent months visiting housing developments around the world, including in Toronto, Philadelphia and Vienna, seeking inspiration for his own ambitious project.

Yesterday he admitted that he had been contemplating taking on debt “for the first time” to speed up the project.

“But two things happened,” he said, alluding to a notification from his bricks supplier that costs had increased by 28 per cent. “Add to that Patrick Harvie’s rent freeze bill and I am going to put things on hold.

“There is no incentive whatsoever to try to make a difference.”

Although Sir Tom suggested that Lord Haughey would “find a way round it”, the high-profile businessman said: “Patrick Harvie’s rent freeze is a big part of my decision. The housing market is in absolute crisis and without any plans on how to address it that crisis can only get worse.”

Sir Tom, describing Lord Haughey’s news as a “blow”, added: “Scotland needs to build these house. It would have created jobs.”

In strongly worded criticism of the MSP, Lord Haughey stated: “Patrick Harvie will go down in history as the man who stopped investment and added to the calamitous lack of housing that we have in Scotland, 100 per cent.

“Don’t take my word for it – the house associations are calling for it to be scrapped.

"And Patrick Harvie stands up in the Scottish Parliament waxing lyrical about heat pumps, sounding like he is reading from a brochure from a heat pump company.”

Lord Haughey previously told Scottish ministers to reject the UK Government’s “nonsense” policy of replacing old gas boilers with air source heat pumps and come up with a better, greener solution.

“I’m calling Patrick Harvie out and asking him to come on the show to debate the rent freeze and debate about heat pumps,” he said.

“None of these are good for Scotland.”