Official statistics have shown there was a 17% decrease in all sector housebuilding starts and completions between 2023 and 2024 (year ending June).

In the 12 months ending June 2024, there were 19,293 homes built and 15,296 new builds started.

The private sector built 14,240 homes and the social sector built 5,053 homes. In terms of starts, building work on 11,795 was started by the private sector and 3,501 homes by the social sector.

Excluding 2020 (where Covid-19 impacted housebuilding) completions were the lowest since the year to end of June 2018 and starts the lowest since the year to end of June 2013 in both the social and private sector.

In terms of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, in the year to the end of June 2024, there were 6,966 approvals, 6,422 starts, and 9,295 completions of affordable homes. The number of completions and starts were down by 14% (-1,556 homes) and 10% (-734 homes) respectively compared to the year to end June 2023. However, approvals increased by 15% (+906) between 2023 and 2024 (year ending June).

Sector body Homes for Scotland said the figures provide evidence that Scotland’s housing emergency is growing and further emphasise the need for urgent action by the Scottish Government to address what is now becoming an all too familiar picture of continuous decline in the country’s housing supply.

Chief executive Jane Wood added: “It has now been four months since the Scottish Government conceded that the country was facing a national housing emergency, and sixteen months on since Argyll and Bute Council declared the first local housing emergency. We now find ourselves in the quite incredible position that over half the Scottish population are living in local authority areas with a housing emergency, when the number of children and households in temporary accommodation have reached new record highs. 

“Less than a week ago, we heard from the Deputy First Minister at the Homes for Scotland Annual Conference who spoke of the need for policy certainty and positive rhetoric, as well as ‘identifying affordable actions that deliver the biggest impact’. Today’s housing statistics illustrate how urgently these are required if we are to stop the haemorrhaging of inward investment into the sector and the loss of any further home builders in Scotland.

“The Scottish Government often highlights the ongoing challenges of Brexit, cost price inflation and Westminster as the main drivers of the housing crisis, but we have seen in recent months that positive action can be taken with real leadership, such as the proposal to create a National Outcome on Housing for the first time, or recognition of housing as a key pillar within the National Strategy on Economic Transformation.

“Whilst there remain obvious budgetary restraints within the Scottish Government, now is the time, as the Deputy First Minister said, to find the affordable actions that can have the biggest impact. We have been encouraged by the recent change of tone we have heard coming from Ministers and officials and are working closely with them to co-create solutions but are urging them to get to grips with the planning system (which 248 of the 250 senior industry attendees at our conference last week said was ‘broken’ and not ‘fit for purpose’) and review the cumulative impact of new and proposed regulation (which is now estimated to be adding c£30,000 in additional costs to the building of a new home) as top priorities.”

The housebuilding statistics come as the government revealed the number of open homelessness cases reached a record level of 31,870.

The number of children living in temporary accommodation, which includes hotels and B&Bs, has also surpassed 10,000.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) warned that housing associations had been hamstrung by “repeated hammer-blow cuts” to the affordable housing budget.

Scotland’s affordable housing budget was cut by £196 million in last year’s Scottish Budget and has been slashed by 37% in the last two years.

SFHA chief executive Sally Thomas said: “Today’s housing and homelessness figures underline that the collapse in housebuilding has devastating consequences.

“Repeated Scottish Government cuts to the affordable housing budget have made it ever more difficult for housing associations to deliver the safe, warm, affordable homes that everyone deserves as a basic human right.

“We’ve seen some recognition from the Scottish Government that this is an emergency, so ahead of the Scottish budget we need to see radical action to match that and to invest in our social homes. This is a dire situation, but there is time to turn things around if we act with purpose.”

Scottish Conservative shadow housing secretary, Miles Briggs, warned the “savage cuts of nearly £200m to the housing budget mean fewer and fewer homes are being built across all sectors”.

He added: “With homelessness levels at their highest levels in a decade, that is a complete dereliction of duty by SNP ministers. SNP ministers must reverse their cuts to the housing budget, drop any plans to extend rent controls and finally give councils a fair funding deal that they need to meet the demand for housing across Scotland.”

The statistics are used to inform progress against the Scottish Government’s affordable housing delivery target to deliver 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 70% will be for social rent and 10% will be in rural and island communities. By June 2024, 22,743 affordable homes have been completed towards the target. These completions consist of 17,289 (76%) homes for social rent, 3,219 (14%) for affordable rent, and 2,235 (10%) for affordable home ownership.

Housing minister Paul Mclennan said the Scottish Government has a “strong track record in supporting the delivery of affordable homes”.

He added: “We will continue to build on that record with a total investment of almost £600 million in affordable housing this year.”