Building new homes is the answer to a broad range of policy targets - that's the message Homes for Scotland wants to convey to the new Scottish Government cabinet.

The home building industry body said that keeping housing at the top of the political agenda could help the Government meet housing need, create jobs, maintain skills, meet climate change targets and fight fuel poverty.

Chief executive Philip Hogg said: "No other industry has the potential to help the Scottish Government achieve so much so effectively.

But, he said, the low amount of housing being built was worrying.

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He said: "With a total of only 15,000 new homes built last year, you need to go back to 1946 to find a time when we were building less. This is despite the fact that the annual increase in new households is projected to be more than 21,000 over coming years.

And he expressed concerns that Nicola Sturgeon's twin jobs in infrastructure and preparing the SNP's case for independence would cause the former to be neglected.

He said: "Having announced a target to build 35,000 new homes each year by the middle of this decade back in 2007, Nicola Sturgeon already has a strong appreciation of the need for more new homes. However, I hope that her heavy responsibilities for Government Strategy and the Constitution will not divert her from the important tasks of ensuring more homes are built and jobs created."

Mr Hogg welcomed Margaret Burgess as the new Housing Minister, noting that she had already raised questions on unemployment, fuel poverty and the economy in the Scottish Parliament.

(NE)