SCOTLAND needs at least 12,000 new affordable homes every year, a housing charity warned yesterday — twice the number currently planned by Holyrood.

A report commissioned by Shelter Scotland, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations calls for at least 12,000 homes to be built every year for the next five years as a “minimum requirement” to tackle the housing crisis.

Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown called on the Scottish government to “acknowledge there is a crisis” and “do more to reduce homelessness in Scotland.”