7. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the rural housing fund. (S6O-01922)

Since 2016, the £30 million demand-led rural and islands housing fund has provided an additional delivery route for community organisations, development trusts, private landowners and developers. To September 2022, the fund delivered 164 homes and provided funding of £16.7 million. It supplements the considerable mainstream activity in rural and island areas that delivered almost 8,000 affordable homes between 2016-17 and 2021-22.

Although £25 million was promised to be spent on rural housing by 2021, less than half of that has been spent. What was spent led to a mere 300 homes being built or approved. The north-east got only 12 of those, all of which are in Angus. The Government promised 110,000 affordable homes across Scotland by 2032. Will that promise be met? If so, how many of the 110,000 homes will be in the north-east?

We are committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which 10 per cent will be in our remote, rural and island communities. We are making available £3.5 billion during this parliamentary session for affordable housing across Scotland. That builds on the delivery of 115,000 affordable homes that have been built since 2007. We have a track record of delivering that scale of affordable housing, and we will continue to deliver on that scale.

The rural and islands housing fund is demand led. We want to see more projects coming forward, and we are doing what we can to encourage that, including through the development of our new rural and islands action plan, which will be published in the coming weeks.