Record low looms for new houses

A COUNCIL house boom is unlikely to have prevented 2011 becoming the worst year for Scottish home-building in recent history, official figures suggest.

The latest statistics for Scotland show a record 866 council houses were completed last year. However, housing association completions slumped to 3,698, their lowest level since 2004.

The full picture for 2011 will not become clear until the end-of-year private-sector statistics become available. However, July to September 2011 was the worst quarter for total housebuilding since recent records began 15 years ago.

There were 3,395 houses completed across the private, public and housing association sectors, less than half the number of quarterly completions during the height of the housing boom in 2007.

The total number of houses to September 2011 was 10,552, some 6,400 fewer than the year to December 2010. With only 1,086 council and housing association homes completed in the final three months of 2011, it is unlikely the private sector will have prevented a new low.

Housing minister Keith Brown said: “Challenging economic conditions are continuing to have detrimental impact on house-building activity.”