That the Parliament notes the findings and recommendations of the recently published, Homes for Scotland SME Home Builders 2024: Data Review and Industry Insights report; welcomes the data review conducted by Rettie & Co, which examines what it sees as the SME home builders vital role in Scotland’s housing eco-system and the extensive insights gathered from SMEs on the reported challenges that they face delivering homes across all tenures in Scotland; notes that, according to the report, five of the SMEs who reported their insights consider Fife as their key market for housing delivery; further notes that the report also highlights SME insights that planning, government regulation, interest rates and relationships with water supply and sewage and wastewater providers as presenting barriers to activity; understands that SMEs are now delivering a lower proportion of new housing, now accounting for 20% of new home sales, and that until 2017 it was typically 40%; considers that as well as driving rural and remote home building, SMEs are also key to unlocking technically difficult brownfield sites, which, it understands, the Scottish Government wants to prioritise, and believes that the research fills a significant data gap, which is essential for developing evidence-based policy to effectively address the housing emergency.
Supported by:
Clare Adamson, Miles Briggs, Ariane Burgess, Alexander Burnett (Registered interest)
, Foysol Choudhury, Murdo Fraser, Pam Gosal, Mark Griffin, Fulton MacGregor, Liam McArthur, Ash Regan, Graham Simpson, Alexander Stewart, Paul Sweeney, Tess White, Brian Whittle, Beatrice Wishart