Swinney announces plan for national housing agency

John Swinney has announced plans to create a national housing agency to help boost home building in Scotland.

The first minister said the agency, called More Homes Scotland, would deliver new homes more quickly and more affordably.

Ministers have declared a national housing emergency amid a severe shortage in social homes, an increase in homelessness and rising property costs.

Swinney said More Homes Scotland would start operating in 2027-28 if the SNP returns to government following May's Holyrood election.

The agency will focus on large-scale affordable housing proposals, rural and island housing, the acquisition of land, and infrastructure work needed for sites that have stalled.

An update will be given to the Scottish Parliament in March, the Scottish government said, in the hope of being fully operational by the 2028-29 financial year.

Swinney said: "A new national agency will mean less duplication, greater expertise, increased efficiencies, and making our substantial investment go further.

"It will also provide enhanced support to our local authority partners and we will work in partnership with the Scottish National Investment Bank to attract more commercial investment.

"It is a new body that will offer simplicity, scale and speed - boosting delivery, and maximising savings, as part of our commitment to a decade of public sector modernisation and reform."

Ministers declared a national housing emergency in 2024 and have pledged to invest up to £4.9bn in affordable homes over the next four years.

However, progress has slowed in recent months. As of September, a total of 31,064 affordable homes had been completed.

In the year until then, compared with the previous 12 months, there was a 5% drop in all sector housebuilding and an 8% decrease in completions.

Scottish Conservative housing spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher said: "Scotland is in the grip of a housing emergency because of the SNP's appalling failure to deliver the homes we have needed over the last two decades.

"Yet John Swinney's latest plan is to set up another quango that won't even be fully up and running for another two years."

Creating a new housing agency to ensure more homes are built amounts to an election promise from the SNP.

The Scottish government's announcement confirms that the body will be fully functional in by 2028/29 "subject to the outcome of the Scottish Parliament election".

I think we can expect to see this pledge repeated often in the campaign to come.

Ministers see it as a model that can speed up the delivery of new homes and help overcome what they have declared as a "housing emergency".

Given that the SNP has been in power since 2007, it is reasonable for rival parties to question their record. Should they not have been more effective in averting a severe shortage?

It is also worth pointing out that the SNP pledged to create a national agency to improve social care at the last election and it was eventually dropped.

Clearly, they hope that if re-elected their plans for "More Homes Scotland" will be less controversial and deliver exactly what the agency's title suggests.