SCOTTISH LABOUR has backed the “dream of home ownership,” amid a housing emergency in the country. 

As the party gathered in Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus for its annual conference, it announced plans it claims will both “drive down house prices” and “support first-time buyers” to counter the 28 per cent rise in prices over the last five years.

Scottish Labour said it would reform planning to force private developers to sell 20 per cent of stock at a discounted price “in perpetuity,” as well as extend the existing SNP New Supply Shared Equity scheme, which covers social housing, to the private sector.

 Scottish Labour housing spokesperson Mark Griffin MSP said: “There is a housing crisis at the heart of this cost-of-living crisis, with far too many Scots being priced out of home ownership, forced to deal with sky-high rents and insecure housing. 

“For too many people, home ownership has become a distant dream, but Scottish Labour will make that dream a reality once again.”

National Campaigns Officer, Living Rent, Ruth Gilbert commented: “Given Scotland’s escalating housing and homelessness crisis this proposal from Scottish Labour is deeply unserious, and will only cause further harm to Scotland’s working class.

“We know that Scotland’s housing is expensive and insecure due to a limited supply of the right kind of housing. So-called ‘affordable housing’ schemes like shared equity and mid-market rent have minimum income thresholds set above the wage of many low paid workers, excluding the very people who are apparently intended to benefit.

“Scottish Labour should pay close attention to problematic current metrics for ‘affordability’, especially given out of control private sector rents caused by decades of poor regulation. Any opposition serious about presenting a genuine solution to the housing crisis would be shouting this from the rooftops.

“The solution is clear: Scotland’s people need to see a robust system of rent controls with a mechanism to bring rents down, and a reversal to social housing budget cuts.

“We also need to see bold, transformative leadership which spends-to-save, empowering Local Authorities to build genuinely affordable social housing and buy back empty properties for social rent.

“An increase in social housing supply would have a knock-on positive effect of shrinking the private rented sector and lowering house prices overall, making purchasing a first home a realistic possibility for those who might ‘dream’ of homeownership.”