Not so much a housing policy, as an election stunt.
Scotland is in the grip of a Housing Emergency that has built up over years, including the 18 years the SNP has been in government. So, the very people who oversaw the crisis unfold are now promising to fix it with a shiny new agency!
The proposed national housing agency, More Homes Scotland, has the right ring to it on paper – aiming for “simplicity, scale, and speed” in delivering more affordable homes, especially in rural and island communities . There’s no denying the need: across Scotland, from the islands to rural Fife and beyond, people are giving up jobs in essential services like the NHS and education because they can’t find somewhere to live. But a top-down, centralized approach raises big questions. Local knowledge has to count for something – can civil servants in Edinburgh truly know better than housing officers on the ground in places like Leven or Lerwick? What looks perfect on a map often falls flat in reality.
The headline funding of £4.9 billion sounds impressive as a soundbite. But let’s break it down: How much will vanish into setup costs and ongoing salaries for this new quango? Over the four years planned, and ignoring those overheads, it equates to around 9,000 homes a year nationally. Spread across Scotland’s 32 councils, that’s just 281 homes per council annually – and larger urban areas will inevitably push for bigger shares, leaving rural spots shortchanged. Then there’s the practical crunch: Are there enough construction firms and workers to handle this scale? Anyone who’s tried to get building work done lately knows the answer – supply chains are stretched, skills shortages are real, and the workforce is aging fast with far too few young people coming through.
Worse, the average build cost implied here is over £136,000 per home. That seems high, but factor in buying up sites (which will inflate land prices as speculators cash in), plus rising construction inflation and haulage costs to remote areas, and this could fuel even more inflation across Scotland. It’s a recipe for higher costs without guaranteed delivery.
Instead, let’s cut out the middlemen. Get the funding directly to proven local providers – housing associations, community trusts, and councils – who already understand their areas’ needs. Empower them to build where it counts, without layers of national bureaucracy.
We also need to urgently address the massive skills gap in the building trades. There’s a huge demographic hole: experienced workers are heading towards retirement, but the numbers of youngsters entering construction apprenticeships remain worryingly low. Recent reports highlight that Scotland’s construction sector needs thousands more workers annually to meet housing targets, yet apprenticeship starts in the sector have been dropping in places, and small firms struggle with funding barriers. Past schemes like the SNP’s flexible apprenticeships for older or mature learners (which helped people who develop later in life) seem to have been sidelined or dropped – a real missed opportunity, as age barriers still block capable adults from retraining. Reviving and expanding targeted apprenticeship support, especially for local trades in rural areas, would be essential to actually deliver any ramp-up in building. Without a skilled workforce on the ground, even the best funding and agencies will fall flat.
But here’s the crucial bit: A national housing agency like More Homes Scotland risks being futile – even a waste of public money – if it’s done in isolation, without joined-up thinking on the wider levers like land monopoly, planning bottlenecks, and speculative ownership. Scotland’s land is one of the most unequally owned in Europe, with concentrated holdings locking up sites for profit rather than people. Without tackling the root incentives that reward speculation – like shifting taxes from wages and buildings onto the unimproved value of land itself – we’ll just end up socializing the costs while private owners pocket unearned windfalls from rising site values created by public investments and community efforts.
True reform would make holding land idle unprofitable, forcing owners to develop productively or sell affordably. It would also capture those value uplifts to fund housing sustainably, without relying on borrowing or grants that add to deficits. To make this work, it must complement bolder land reform, including the creation of a dedicated National Land Agency as advocated by groups like the REVIVE Coalition and Future Economy Scotland.
The REVIVE Coalition calls for a National Land Agency to enforce transparency on ownership (so we know who’s really holding land back), introduce land value taxation to discourage speculation and encourage productive use, limit massive holdings, enable compulsory public purchases where needed, strengthen community rights to influence decisions, and tie it all to environmental protections . This would directly tackle the rural housing crisis by freeing up land for affordable builds, creating jobs in community-led projects, and boosting local economies – from food production to renewables and tourism.
Similarly, Future Economy Scotland’s proposals (in their 2023 report “Land Reform for a Democratic, Sustainable and Just Scotland” and related 2025 election materials) envision a Scottish Land Agency with powers to strategically purchase, develop, and lease/sell land in the public interest . It would fix market failures, support housing alongside renewables and community wealth-building, and enable a just transition to a wellbeing economy. This isn’t about duplicating More Homes Scotland; it’s about extending it – using land powers to unlock stalled sites nationwide, capture value from public investments (via tools like land value taxation), and ensure benefits flow to locals rather than distant owners.
Without this integrated approach – combining direct local funding, skills investment through apprenticeships, and real land reform – More Homes Scotland could end up papering over cracks while land monopolies and workforce shortages persist, driving up prices and perpetuating inequality. Done right, though – with land reform and skills at its heart – it could be transformative: more homes, fairer access, a stronger local workforce, and a Scotland where everyone can afford to live and thrive.
What do you think? Let’s push for real, connected change ahead of the 2026 elections.