Professor John Robertson OBA

In the Guardian today:

Developers will be allowed to build lower numbers of affordable homes and claim higher subsidies to build them under plans being drawn up by the government to solve London’s housebuilding crisis.

What will this do for the current Scottish Labour campaign to try to suggest the SNP is failing on affordable housing supply?

Professor John Robertson OBA

The Daily Mail in April 2025 had the above headline and:

Yesterday, inews had:

The Daily Mail did not, of course, have the facts. Here they are:

For 2025, the SNP Government has funded 5 313 new affordable home starts to a level down from a peak of 11 158 in 2021 but above the level before 2014 and still almost twice that of the last Labour government in Scotland, only 3 100.

AND:

According to the latest official statistics from the Scottish Government, as reported in the Quarterly Housing Statistics update to June 2025, Scotland has delivered a total of 140,346 affordable homes since 2007. This includes 100,064 homes for social rent, with the rest for other affordable rent and ownership options. These figures reflect government-supported completions through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme and other initiatives, marking progress toward the current target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 (of which 29,680 have been completed so far). The data shows Scotland leading the UK in affordable housing delivery per head of population since 2007, with over 40% more than England and 70% more than Wales.

See that 140 346 above?

The Herald had this:

So, target exceeded already?

Sources:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/quarterly-housing-statistics-september-2025/documents/

Scottish Government Housing Statistics (New Housebuilding and AHSP Tables, historical series from 2000–2025)

https://www.gov.scot/collections/housing-statistics/

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