The Scottish government is under mounting pressure to do more to boost the supply of much needed affordable homes in Scotland after fresh data showed that the number of new affordable homes being delivered dropped by a quarter in Q3 2013.
New housing statistics from the Scottish government revealed that for the year to the end of June 2013, there were a total of 13,478 new-build completions, down 14% compared to the previous year.
The data shows there were 761 housing association completions in Q3 2013, bringing the total for the year to end September 2013 to 3,116, down 24% on the 4,093 completions recorded in the year to end September 2012.
The biggest fall in affordable homes in Scotland was witnessed in the private sector, with the volume of starts to the end of June 2013 falling by 11% compared to the preceding year.
Despite the decline in the volume of low-cost homes being built, housing minister Margaret Burgess said that the Scottish government remains well on target to reach its commitment of 30,000 affordable homes by 2016.
She said: "For this government, housing is and will remain a priority. We have boosted our budgets for new affordable homes considerably and in the three year-period between April 2012 to March 2015 plan to invest £970m in affordable housing. This will increase the supply of affordable homes and deliver vital support for construction and house building companies throughout Scotland."
But despite the housing minister's optimism, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) instead that it wasimportant to get the affordable housing programme back on track.
Susan Torrance, SFHA policy manager, commented: "SFHA identified the downward trend in completions of new homes and more worryingly, starts on site from 2011 onwards. The latest figures confirm what our members had been telling us about the difficulties of developing at £42,000 benchmark subsidy per unit."
"Since the Scottish government increased the subsidy rate earlier this year, we do expect more new homes to be underway next year. The rise in subsidy rates effective from July this year will assist with getting more projects off the ground and we are grateful that the Scottish government listened to our case.
"However, getting the affordable housing supply programme back on track is no easy matter and not helped by the difficulties in raising private finance to complement the subsidy levels."