Graham Simpson hosted a Homes for Scotland parliamentary reception to discuss the delivery of Scotland's future housing stock.
Industry trade body Homes for Scotland said there has been a near 40% reduction in the amount of companies building less than 50 homes a year, something which needs significantly increased if Scotland is to deliver the amount of homes required to meet demand.
Graham Simpson said "This past year has been an interesting year for house building and planning. I have been heavily involved in the scrutiny of the planning bill and I am looking forward to stage 3 of the bill as we finalise this important piece of legislation and improve our system to allow greater ease in building not only homes but also creating places.
"We also have the fuel poverty bill to look forward to. This will have an impact on new builds as we consider the importance of future proofing new builds to ensure they will meet future energy efficiency targets. I am enthused with the high energy efficiency standards that can be achieved, including the fascinating Passvihaus standard that can essentially eliminate fuel poverty in the right setting. I would like to see more investment in this area so we can finally take fuel poverty off the agenda and consign it to history".
"I believe we need to be building more homes across Scotland. No one wants a system that does not work nor delivers the homes that Scotland needs. New home completions have fallen by around a third since 2007. We need at least 23,000 new homes a year – of all tenures. That figure rises to 25,000 if you want to catch up with the backlog - but in 2017 only 17,650 new homes were completed. The last time the 25,000 figure was met was back in 2007.
“But who is to say when we have seven different ways of calculating housing land supply need. That is crazy. How can we have certainty when we do not have an accurate picture of Scotland’s housing needs. And certainty should also mean dealing with planning quicker.”
