Housing Minister Margaret Burgess has said house-building across all sectors remains highest in Scotland, than the rest of the UK.

The announcement comes despite a fall in the completion of new homes.

New figures released by the Scottish Government highlight that in 2012/13, the number of new build completions across all sectors fell from 15,940 to 13,803.

The rate per 100,000 population for total completions in Scotland is 259.8 for the year to the end of March 2013, but the Scottish rate remained higher than the rest of the UK last year, as well as the equivalent figures for England – 201.5 and Wales – 177.9.

In the year to 30 June 2013, the number of new local authority homes started was 1,189 and is the second highest figure for the period since 1988. This brings the total number of new local authority homes started within the last four years to more than 4,000.


The Scottish Government has kick-started a new generation of council house-building - which has reversed decades of decline with social housing completions in the six years 2007/08 to 2012/13 – with an increase of 32% on the six-year period 2001/02 to 2006/07.

Commenting on the figures, Minister Burgess said: "We are still experiencing challenging economic conditions which are continuing to have an impact on house-building activity.

"This is due to world economic conditions exacerbated by Westminster's drastic cuts to our capital budget. Despite this the Scottish Government remains committed to stimulating growth and delivering more affordable homes for people across Scotland.

"We are doing all we can to facilitate the industry's recovery, boost supply and protect and create jobs through our National Housing Trust initiative and House-building Infrastructure Loan Fund. We are also helping households get onto, or move up the property ladder through our shared equity schemes and our support for the MI New Home scheme."

"We have committed to deliver 30,000 affordable homes during this Parliament, at least 20,000 of those will be for social rent and we have put in place the funding - almost £950 million in the current 3 years - to make that happen," she added.

(JP/MH)