More than 10,000 approvals were granted for 'affordable' homes over the year ending to March 2017.

The latest National Statistics Publication for Scotland reveals a total of 10,276 applications were approved, up from 29% (2,331 homes) compared with last year.

Elsewhere, 'affordable' housing starts totalled 9,308 (21% increase or 1,626 homes) compared with 2016, while completions totalled 7,336 in the year ending March 2017, an increase of 13%, or 818 homes.

With the latest figures showing the highest levels of activity in the 'affordable' house-building sector since the early 1980s, more than £1.75 billion has been announced for councils to stimulate investment in the 'affordable' housing industry.

In 2018-19, £532 million will be shared amongst local authorities – rising to £591m in 2019-20 and £630m in 2020-21.

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The move is designed to help councils and house-builders plan their investment and provide certainty on the amount of funding available until 2021.

Announcing the funding today, 13 April, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: "We are ensuring Scotland has homes that are high-quality, efficient and affordable.

"Today, we are announcing to local authorities how much money they'll have to invest in affordable housing until the end of this Parliament. It means they can plan these new affordable homes now - with the certainty that the funding will increase year-on-year.

"This is also an important signal to the house-building sector in Scotland and demonstrates our commitment to the industry and the estimated 14,000 jobs our affordable housing supply programme supports each year.

"Increasing the supply of affordable homes is a key commitment – and vital to our ambition of tackling poverty and inequality in our society.

"Much has been achieved in our first year of our new affordable housing programme and these figures are evidence that Government investment is stimulating house-building in the affordable sector.

"With a huge number of affordable homes approved last year, we can be confident that our programme is on course to deliver for Scotland.

"Today's announcement will provide the certainty that local authorities and the sector need to accelerate this progress and ensure we keep up this momentum to reach our goal of 50,000 new affordable homes by 2021."

(LM)