Sturgeon Pledges To Tackle Housing Crisis

Ministers vowed yesterday to remove the hold-ups in the planning system that are fuelling a housing crisis across Scotland.

The pledge came after The Scotsman revealed how bureaucracy and delays were preventing suitable brownfield sites across Scotland being developed for housing. It is estimated some 270,000 houses need to be built over the next nine years to satisfy the need for affordable housing.

Nicola Sturgeon, who, as public health minister, is in charge of housing, promised yesterday to tackle the problem.

She told the BBC: “We want to look at blockages in the planning system just now; we want to look at how we free up more land for house building.”

A task force chaired by Stewart Maxwell, the communities minister, will bring together local authorities and house builders in the next few months to look at the issue.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has put tackling the shortage of affordable housing at the centre of his agenda, setting a target of building three million new homes by 2020.

Yesterday, Yvette Cooper, the UK housing minister, said she was looking at giving councils greater flexibility to invest in housing as part of the drive to create more affordable homes.

Archie Stoddart, the director of Shelter Scotland, told the BBC more social housing was needed as quickly as possible and called for a clear sign from the Executive that it would “meet the needs of Scottish people”, with 30,000 homes for renting.

However, although promising to stick to the last Executive’s plan to eradicate homelessness by 2012, Ms Sturgeon refused to set specific long-term targets.

Instead, she promised “realistic” annual targets for new homes, beyond the 26,000 a year currently being built – including homes for social renting.

“We will have a target. It will be a target that is achievable and realistic, and that will go where it needs to go to tackle the big shortage of housing we have in Scotland,” she said.

She said the Executive would tackle the problem of affordability through a housing support fund that could include shared-equity schemes and possible grants for first-time buyers. “We are very clear we need to build more homes and help people who need it to get on to the property ladder,” she said.

Allan Lundmark, of Homes for Scotland, which represents builders, said it was a matter of “absolute urgency” to tackle the time it takes to free up land.