From BBC Scotland yesterday:

Targets for the delivery of new affordable homes in Glasgow were missed last year, with construction hampered by rising costs. The Scottish government provided £127.75m for the city’s affordable housing supply programme but although all the money was spent, only 448 homes were recorded as complete against a target of 633.

Other targets for approvals and site starts were also missed in 2025/26 for the city, which declared a housing emergency in 2023. However, a report to the council’s city administration committee said Glasgow had managed to deliver significantly more new-build affordable homes compared with other cities within the United Kingdom.

and well down the page:

Figures, for completions between 2019/20 and 2025/26, show 4,249 in Glasgow compared with 3,362 in Birmingham and 2,769 in Manchester.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2v4w08jwjo

Not much difference there is there? However, affordable in Glasgow and affordable in Manchester or Birmingham can be very different things as that category is relative to the cost of private rent more generally in each city.

The problem with affordable rent is that in many places, it’s simply not affordable. Shelter has carried out new analysis estimating that in 42% of local authorities in England, so-called affordable rent is in fact unaffordable. This contrasts to social rent, which is affordable in virtually all local authorities (98%) in the country.

Source: https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/policy_and_research/policy_library/briefing_affordable_rent_is_not_affordable

So, on completions how does Glasgow compare?

Glasgow City has 110 000 social rent homes compared to 12 764 in Liverpool. https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/article/12942/Social-housing

In 2023/2024, Glasgow City Council completed 558 new social rent homes, down from the average of 760 per year between 2018 and 2023, compared to only 5 in Liverpool. https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/article/10245/Housing-Emergency

Liverpool’s population is 510 000 compared to Glasgow’s 622 000, only one quarter larger, yet Glasgow has 9 times as many and built more than 100 times as many, social rent homes in 2023/2024

Manchester? 814 social rent homes. Glasgow has 135 times as many.

Source: https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=b48bb3d3b38adba5ac45c98c55a3f56892cb05ccfea82b9d15572537bd27981dJmltdHM9MTc4NTg4ODAwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=040f0c0f-8f6f-69bb-36d4-18948ed46872&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9kZW1vY3JhY3kubWFuY2hlc3Rlci5nb3YudWsvZG9jdW1lbnRzL3M1NTk4NC9Nb25pdG9yaW5nJTIwdGhlJTIwSG91c2luZyUyMFN0cmF0ZWd5JTIwMjAyNC0yNS5wZGY&ntb=1