Government must learn to listen over affordable homes - Scott

12.01.26am GMT Tue 24th Feb 2009

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott has called on the Scottish and UK Governments to work together to get Scotland building again.

Mr Scott made the call on a visit to Inverness today, where he was shown the final stages of renovations to turn the formerly derelict Caledonia House office block on Academy Street into a top quality Ramada Encore hotel.

Tavish Scott MSPMr Scott highlighted the impact of the economic slowdown on construction jobs and apprenticeships, as well as efforts to meet the acute shortage of affordable homes.

Commenting after the visit, Mr Scott said:

“It is great to see this building, which lay empty and unloved at the

heart of Inverness’s Old Town, getting the investment it needed.

“At a time when it has rarely mattered more, the new hotel will

bring new jobs and new visitors into the city centre.”

Mr Scott called for the two governments to cooperate to keep capacity in the construction sector:

“There are huge plans for Inverness and the A96 corridor. We

need to make sure there are local jobs and skills in the construction industry which can meet that demand when recovery comes.

“We know that the outturn of affordable homes has slowed alarmingly, at a time when social landlords are under greater strain than ever.

“Targeted, significant investment in affordable homes is desperately

needed. The Scottish Government must commit to passing on every penny to housing associations and councils, and to recognising the real

unit costs of smaller scale development in rural communities.”

Danny Alexander MPLocal Liberal Democrat MP Danny Alexander added that the housing crisis

calls for party politics to be set aside:

“On this issue, perhaps more than any other, we need Labour and

the SNP to set their differences aside.

“Westminster needs to come up with extra funding as housing charity

Shelter has rightly said. The Chancellor of the Exchequer needs to make this a priority – by committing the funding and dropping the Highland Council’s housing debt. But the Scottish Government should

stop gloating about building 432 council houses in the year when they slashed overall investment in affordable homes by a quarter here in the Highlands – and by 15% across Scotland.

“I don’t think the 200,000 Scottish families waiting for a decent

affordable home care whether it is built by a council, a private developer or a housing association.

“The Scottish Government took a small step in the right direction recently with its u-turn over Housing Association Grants – but many more houses would already be in the pipeline if Ministers had listened from the start.”