In last month’s Home Report we summarised the key housing pledges in the manifestos of the main political parties seeking election to the Scottish Parliament. With the SNP winning its fifth consecutive election, but without an outright majority, it will have to work with other parties to deliver on its housing promises.

As we have seen in the two years since a national housing emergency was announced on 15 May 2024, strong political statements of intent at national level to improve housing outcomes have not necessarily translated into delivery of more homes. Housing completions have continued to fall despite the previous Scottish Government’s Housing Emergency Action Plan.

Post-election, the narrative must therefore be about a “reset” for housebuilding, aligning national policy ambition with local delivery reality.

National commitments

At a UK level, it was encouraging to see housing positioned alongside infrastructure and economic growth as a key priority for the UK Government in the King’s Speech which was delivered in Westminster on 13 May 2026. Housing was recognised as a source of insecurity for many people and legislation will be brought forward to increase long-term investment in social housing and to reform the leasehold system through a shift to commonhold. A Bill will be brought forward to speed up remediation for people living in homes with unsafe cladding.

Housing, planning and tenure are devolved matters, however, and as such while the Speech reinforces a positive policy context for housebuilding, its direct relevance to Scotland lies in the potential funding uplifts via the Barnett formula; wider construction sector regulation and financing conditions; and signalling on UK‑wide investment priorities.

The SNP’s “first 100 days” paper gives an insight into what they see as the priorities for the new parliamentary term. It centres primarily on cost‑of‑living and public service delivery and from a housing perspective this includes:

  • the launch of the First Homes Fund (with over 2000 people anticipated to be helped with loans of up to £10000 to buy a new home in the first 100 days);
  • commencement of engagement on housing reform and giving tenants a right of first refusal if their landlord chooses to sell the property that is their home;
  • the rollout of the 10-year £50million homelessness prevention fund; and
  • commissioning an update of design guidance for accessible homes.

Notably, there appear to be no immediate plans to address what are widely regarded to be the three key Scottish housing delivery constraints, namely:

  • planning/consenting risk;
  • housing land supply; and
  • infrastructure delivery/funding and developer viability.

Local delivery

With the national focus seemingly on affordability rather than supply, the recent Highland Housing Challenge Update provides a useful contrast, setting out a delivery‑led response to the housing issues facing The Highland Council, its partners, and communities across Highland in meeting its current and anticipated future demand for housing in the area.

The Highland Council recognised in 2024 that ensuring an effective supply of housing across all tenures was essential for the delivery of core services, enabling economic growth and to address the needs, health and wellbeing of its local communities. We have seen similar statements and affirmations in various national reports and plans on the housing emergency, but The Highland Housing Challenge Partnership Action Plan which was agreed in June 2025 identified commitments for action across three critical areas:

  • increasing land and property supply to ensure that there is a sufficient pipeline of sites across the whole of the Highland area;
  • increasing finance for housing development and seeking solutions to address the additional costs of building in some parts of rural Highland; and
  • increasing developer capacity, including attracting new partners and types of building and addressing the challenges to building.

The latest Report to Council identifies the solutions which the Council is bringing forward to address the Housing Challenge, including:

  • the Empty Homes Challenge Fund, aimed at bringing existing stock back into use by providing financial assistance to eligible owners to support essential repairs, upgrades or conversions with the intention of promoting the supply of affordable rented houses, delivering key worker housing, and encouraging rural regeneration;
  • the development of a mid‑market rent model (Highland Mid-Market Homes) which allows the Council to deliver mid-market properties itself or through another entity; increasing supply overall and supporting households and key workers unable to access social housing but who cannot afford open market rents;
  • creating land and property capacity by:
    • progressing with the new development plan;
    • purchasing land to provide a landbank which will deliver c1800 units over the next eight - 10 years;
    • re-purposing public sector assets;
    • purchasing suitable open market properties in strategic areas to add to the affordable housing stock.
  • accelerating development by:
    • progressing proposed Masterplan Consent Areas for Essich (Inverness), Ardersier and Embo to accelerate planning and site delivery;
    • supporting developers in planning via the Integrated Housing Service for developers.

These solutions recognise that delivery of more homes depends on multiple interdependent factors and demonstrate active market participation by The Highland Council in seeking to deliver more homes across its area rather than leaving it all to housebuilders and developers.

Conclusion

Over the next few weeks the new Scottish Government will be formed, with perhaps a new Cabinet Secretary for Housing and a new Planning Minister. But for the housebuilding sector, the key issue remains unchanged, namely the need to translate national housing policy into increased and sustained local housing completions.

Perhaps rather than a top-down approach, the Scottish Government should be looking at the direct delivery interventions which local authorities such as The Highland Council are adopting to see whether these actions can be scaled up and integrated into national policy to deliver more homes across Scotland and address the national housing emergency.

Contributor

Elaine Farquharson-Black

Partner