Richard Leonard: Scottish Labour government would build 12,000 homes for social rent a year

A Scottish Labour government would aim to build least 12,000 homes for social rent each year, according to targets announced by Richard Leonard.

Speaking in Glasgow, Leonard will announce the move as part of plans to tackle inequality, claiming the construction would support almost 50,000 jobs.

With more than 170,000 households stuck on social housing waiting lists across Scotland, Leonard warned it was “no time to tinker around the edges”.

Leonard said: “A home should be a basic and fundamental human right. That’s why a Scottish Labour government would ensure access to a safe, secure, habitable home by aiming to build at least 12,000 homes for social rent every year.

“Our society is deeply divided, with the richest one per cent in Scotland owning more personal wealth than the whole of the poorest fifty per cent. This is no time to tinker around the edges, not when so many people in Scotland are currently waiting for public housing.

“Scotland’s housing crisis is a key reason for deepening poverty in Scotland. People can’t access social homes so find themselves in the under regulated private rented sector. We have to address it urgently.”

Just over 5,600 homes for social rent were built in Scotland in 2011-12, before construction declined to 4,274 in 2012-13, 4,368 in 2013-14, 4,376 in 2014-15, 3,853 in 2015-16, 4,580 in 2016-17, and rising to 5,266 up until March this year.