HOUSE BUILDING ‘CRUMBLING ON SNP WATCH’ AFTER CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT PLUMMETS  

By Lucy Ashton

The SNP must prioritise house-building after new figures revealed that the value of work generated by building Scottish homes has fallen by more than the UK as a whole, Scottish Labour has warned.

The output value for the construction of new housing in Scotland has slumped by 17.5% in January to March 2024, compared to the same quarter in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics.

By contrast, the value of new housing in the UK as a whole dropped by 10.3% over the same time period.

Compared to the same quarter pre-pandemic (Jan-Mar 2020), the output value for new housing in Scotland had dropped 19.5%, compared to an increase for the UK as a whole.

Three construction companies with significant contracts for house building in Scotland, including social homes, went bust earlier this year. Yet Scotland faces a housing emergency, with Edinburgh renters seeing their rents rise more quickly than in any UK city over the past three years, according to a leading rental market index.

Chancellor Rachel Reeve and Scottish Labour housing spokesperson Mark Griffin. 

The new UK Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves made house building targets a priority when she set out her agenda earlier this week with a pledge to build 1.5million homes in England over the course of the Parliament but as housing is devolved in Scotland, it would be for the SNP government to deliver policy changes to kickstart housebuilding in Scotland.   

Scottish Labour Housing spokesperson Mark Griffin said: “Scotland is in the middle of a housing emergency with some of the fastest rising rents in the UK, and yet under the SNP, housebuilding output has fallen even further than the UK overall. 

“At a time when first-time buyers are increasingly locked out of the housing market and growing families are struggling to get the space they need, building homes should be a priority but the SNP has slashed the affordable housing budget and let house building crumble on its watch.   

“We all deserve the chance to buy somewhere to call home at an affordable price.  

“Rachel Reeves is leading the way with Labour’s transformative plans to boost housebuilding in England – the SNP must raise its game and match this level of ambition in Scotland.” 

NB: 17.5% decrease is year on year between Jan-Mar 2023 and the same quarter in 2024, and the 10.3% decrease is the change between the last quarter and the latest quarter. 

• Early this year 3 construction companies with significant contracts for housebuilding, including social homes went bust. The collapse of Stewart Milne group, Merchant Homes(Glasgow), and JS Crawford Contracts(Borders) are just some notable examples of the problems being faced by the construction sector.  
• Contributory factors include rising material costs, inflation, planning delays, and skills shortages, with an impact on being felt on house building in communities across Scotland, and in the combined loss of hundreds of jobs in the sector.