The Scottish housing crisis has been brought into focus by the UK Government's target of one million new homes by 2020, Homes for Scotland has said.

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis stated the government should develop one million new homes by the end of Parliament in a BBC documentary.

However, Homes for Scotland Chief Executive, Philip Hogg, said Scotland faces the same challenges as those highlighted in England.

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"As numerous reports have identified, hundreds of thousands of new homes are needed here over the next twenty years to meet the diverse housing needs of our growing population," he said.

Mr Hogg added: "Achieving this, however, requires the necessary support to be in place to increase delivery across all tenures. Crucial, for example, is an efficient and responsive planning system which facilitates housing delivery.  Whilst this is being considered by the recently announced independent panel undertaking a 'root and branch' review, time really is of the essence in this regard.

"We also still await the detail on the £195m successor to the hugely successful Help to Buy (Scotland) shared equity scheme which is essential to builders' forward planning and investment decision-making."

(LM)