Labour housebuilding targets should be copied, lettings chief demands

Scotland needs to match Labour’s English housebuilding target to tackle the country’s housing emergency according to a high profile lettings agency chief. 

DJ Alexander Ltd, which is the largest lettings and estate agency in Scotland, believes the Scottish Government should replicate Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcement for a five-year housebuilding target, ease planning restrictions, and support property developers to build more homes for owner occupiers and the private and social housing sectors.

The Labour government’s housebuilding target for England of 1.5m new homes would equate to a comparable target for Scotland, given its population, of around 123,000 new homes over five years which is equivalent to 24,600 a year.

David Alexander, chief executive of DJ Alexander Scotland, comments: “Although this may sound like a large number it is not an unrealistic figure. Just two years ago 23,735 new homes were built. However, that year was an outlier, and you have to go as far back as 2004 to 2007 to see consistent newbuild numbers around the 25,000 level.

“The problem is that this is an issue which has been developing for decades. Between the start of the SNP government’s reign in 2007 until 2022 the number of social houses available has increased by just 11,368 rising from 607,191 to 618,559.”

He continues: “Over this same period Scotland’s population has grown by 277,000 during this time although this only partially explains the current housing shortages. The last decade has seen a seismic shift in the way in which people live. Almost 85% of people now live alone or as a couple in homes. The days of families needing large social housing are long gone and increasingly the demand is for one-bedroom flats in our largest cities.

“Therefore, although there has been an increase in the total number of homes in Scotland rising by a quarter of a million in the last 15 years to stand at 2,687,186 in 2022 this volume is not enough to cope with the demands of an increasing population and changing social trends. The private rented sector (PRS) has filled some of these shortages to meet demand but more needs to be done. It has also been essential for people who are not permanent residents in Scotland but who come to live and work for a limited time but are ineligible for social housing and won’t buy a home to cover a brief period.”

Alexander says not only are more homes in the owner-occupier, private rented and social housing sectors, “we also need to ensure that these are the right sort of homes in the right areas. Politicians hate setting targets as it can come back to haunt them if they fail to achieve the numbers in the set timeframe. But it does also provide a very real incentive to actually do something and generate change within a fixed period.

“Therefore, the Scottish government could do a lot worse than emulate Keir Starmer’s housing policy.”