The SNP’s affordable homes target is set to be missed in South Lanarkshire – by eight years, an MSP says.
Conservative Graham Simpson said it could take until 2029 to build the number of homes in the area which would be required if the Scottish Government’s 50,000 nationwide target for 2021 is to be hit.
South Lanarkshire’s Council contains 6 per cent of Scotland’s population. Therefore, South Lanarkshire should see 3,000 new build affordable homes by 2021 – out of the 50,000 pledge. However, after the first two years since the pledge there have been 300 affordable homes delivered in 2016/17 and 270 affordable homes delivered in 2017/18 - a total of 570 over the two years.
If the target is to be reached there would need to be 600 delivered each year, so they are currently not even reaching half their target. On their current trajectory only 148 affordable homes will be delivered in 2018/19, and the 3,000 homes will not be delivered until 2029 – 8 years late.
Graham Simpson, Scottish Conservative Housing Spokesman, said “Affordable housing is a huge issue across Scotland. The SNP made a very ambitious pledge to deliver 50,000 new build affordable homes by 2021. This would mean 3,000 new build affordable homes in South Lanarkshire, but it is clear that they are way off reaching this target.
“If the SNP are to meet their commitment they will have start delivering more than twice as many affordable homes each year.
“It is totally unacceptable that it will take until 2029, instead of 2021, to meet the SNP’s manifesto pledge. This is 8 years late and my constituents do not deserve to wait that long. We need more affordable homes urgently to fix Scotland’s housing crisis.”
