The Scottish Liberal Democrats have revealed plans to increase housing supply across the country.

In its manifesto, the party has pledged to increase the number of 'affordable' homes by 50,000 over the next Parliament.

In addition, 40,000 of the homes will be made available for social rent.

Other pledges include tackling youth homelessness by supporting the creation of new centres across the country which provide accommodation for young people.

The party claims with private housebuilding returning to pre-recession levels, around 110,000 new homes will have been brought into use by 2021, with one third available for 'affordable' rent.

To achieve this aim, the party will:


• Support the continued innovation that has harnessed new forms of funding for Scottish housing and brought new types of property into use

• Expand the Housing Fund for Scotland model that has seen investment in rented homes pioneered by a local government pension fund. This expansion to all funds will add 12,000 new homes

• Use a proportion of any future Barnett consequentials from the UK which are classed as ‘financial transactions’ to fund new housing association properties as well as help-to-buy schemes;

• Renew the empty homes strategy to bring as many of the 27,000 empty homes back into use as part of the 110,000 total of new homes –including introduction of a Help to Renovate loan

• Work with the British Business Bank to help direct support to small and medium sized house-builders who struggle to get support from traditional banks

• Extend existing house-building programmes by using a proportion of investment from our Fit For The Future Investment Plan

Other key pledges include tackling climate change, banning fracking and supporting renewable electricity generation.

Scottish Liberal Democrats' Leader, Willie Rennie, said: "This is about Scotland getting back to it’s best – and it’s about the Liberal Democrats getting back to our best with a positive, optimistic, ambitious program for Scotland."

(LM)