Updated housing statistics have been released today by Scotland's Chief Statistician.

After a fairly consistent increase over the last four year period, the most recent annual figures for new build starts indicate some degree of fall-off compared to the previous year (from about 28,300 in 2006, to 26,800 in 2007), primarily driven by a marked surge in private sector building starts for Glasgow during 2006. Figures for housing association starts have shown a consistent increase over the past few years

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Following several years of little local authority new build activity, in 2007 around 400 new council dwellings were started in Midlothian

Annual new build completions have risen steadily between 2000 and 2005 to a peak at about 26,200 before dropping slightly in 2006 to 24,800. Latest figures for 2007 show completions remaining steady at approximately 24,700

The numbers of Right to Buy sales by public authorities continue to show a declining trend since the short-lived increase in 2002 prior to the introduction of modernised Right to Buy legislation. The latest annual figures for 2007 (about 6,500, excluding local authorities with total stock transfers) confirm the consistent decrease, and represent a drop of 17% since 2006

(GK/JM)