6. To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to ensure that it meets its affordable homes target by 2032. (S6O-03011)

To September 2023, 15,765 homes—of which 77 per cent are for social rent—were delivered towards the 110,000 target. The United Kingdom budget has meant that our UK capital funding will fall by 10 per cent in real terms between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

Inflationary pressures, Brexit impacts and wider market conditions have triggered a rise in construction costs and workforce challenges.

We remain focused on our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032. To support that, we are bringing forward to 2024 a review that was scheduled for 2026-27, with a focus on deliverability. We are also accelerating work with the financial community to boost private sector investment.

Nearly £200 million is to be cut from the affordable homes supply programme. The number of social homes on which construction began was down by 41 per cent in 2023. An average of 7,700 new social homes need to be built every year in order to meet the target.

How does the minister believe that that can be achieved if funding is to be cut?

I refer the member to my answer to the previous question, regarding the 10 per cent real-terms cut to our funding. That is an issue to mention—we have to deal with those issues. The Institute for Fiscal Studies gave evidence to the Finance and Public Administration Committee on the cuts to the Scottish Government’s budget and the Welsh Government’s budget, which have been made basically to pay for tax cuts. That is the decision that has been made.

I meet and work with local authorities on how we can maximise the deliverability of their own programmes.

There is also a challenge for Katy Clark and her party. If Labour is successful in the election, it is key that it reverses the cut to our capital funding. It also needs to look at local housing allowance rates, which are important. I hope that, if a Labour Government is elected, we can discuss those issues and bring forward proposals, because those are the main things that are impacting on deliverability.

Can the minister confirm that the previous Labour Administration built only six council houses in Scotland between 2003 and 2007, and that this Scottish National Party Government, despite Tory austerity and Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to turn on the taps if he becomes Prime Minister, is still building 1,157 houses this year, which is nearly 200 times more than Labour built over four years?

Indeed—a total of six council houses were built in the last four years of the Labour-led Government in Scotland. That is in stark contrast to the last few years of this Government, when 7,564 new council houses have been built. That is 1,260 times the number that were built under the last four years of the Labour-led Government. I am proud that, from April 2007 to the end of September 2023, we worked with the sector to deliver 126,396 affordable homes, more than 89,000 of which are for social rent, including 23,625 council homes.

I come back to Mr Gibson’s point about Keir Starmer’s refusal to turn on the taps. There is a real challenge for Labour on housing if it is elected—I will come back to that point later in the year.

Scotland’s

“affordable homes target risks becoming an impossible dream.”

Those are not my words but the words of the chief executive of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations. The Scottish Government set a target of 10 per cent of all affordable homes to be in rural and island communities. Last year, however, there was a record low in approvals and completions. Does the minister now accept that that target is unlikely to be met?

In my first answer to Katy Clark, I mentioned that we are bringing forward to 2024 a review that was scheduled for 2026-27, with a focus on deliverability. I also mentioned some of the issues that have had an impact on house building, such as inflationary pressures and the impacts of Brexit, as well as wider market conditions, which have not helped. As I mentioned, there is also the 10 per cent cut to our capital funding.

Miles Briggs mentioned rural homes. I have discussed with rural developers the cost of construction, which has had an impact in that regard. That comes back to the point about interest rates and construction inflation over that period. I continue to meet local authorities in rural areas to deliver houses there.