With campaigning for the General Election now well underway, Scottish home building industry leaders today expressed their concern that none of the political parties has set out plans for systematically correcting the fundamental constraint on housing market recovery – the overall availability and terms of mortgage finance.

This follows a meeting of the Board of Homes for Scotland (the organisation which represents companies building 95% of new homes built for sale in Scotland and an increasingly significant proportion of affordable housing) where the issue was high on the agenda.

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Chief Executive Jonathan Fair said: "Whatever the political colour of the next Westminster government, it is vital the major problems of the mortgage market in both the quantum of funds available and normalising the terms of borrowing – be tackled urgently.

"Whilst recent news on Stamp Duty relaxation was welcome, the full benefits of such moves cannot be felt when credit-worthy First Time Buyers are still being expected to find deposits of up to 25%."

(GK/BMcC)