Lower Scottish Government subsidies and the worsening impact of the credit crunch require imaginative solutions if the needs of people for affordable housing are to be met, say the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland (CIH).

A new briefing from the CIH shows that, in nearly every local authority area, Scottish Government subsidy to support affordable house building will fall this year. Despite, this the Scottish Government wants to see 6,000 plus new affordable homes being delivered. With the increasingly visible impacts the credit crunch this may become difficult to achieve.

The CIH is calling for the Scottish Government and housing sector to a look at new measures to secure affordable housing. These may include the Scottish Government working with housing associations, local authorities and private developers to use private developers' homes or land that are lying redundant.

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It can also mean, exploring ways to encourage private developers to build more affordable housing whilst other housing demand has fallen. The CIH would like the Scottish Government to examine expanding the open market shared equity LiFT programme, aimed at helping first time buyers, across the whole of Scotland.

Alan Ferguson, Director of the CIH Scotland said: "We support the efforts of the Scottish Government to try and secure more affordable housing from the amount of public investment being made available. As part of this more private investment is required.

"However, the current climate does not make this easy with many lenders no longer lending to the sector and when they are, they are charging higher interest rates. This must to lead to concerns that targets may not be met with serious consequences for people seeking affordable housing solutions. As the credit crunch bites we may also expect to see more people in need of an affordable solution as access to mortgages continue to dry up.

"At the same time we are seeing private housing developers struggling leading to job losses and severely reduced building programmes. We believe that it is time for the Scottish Government to promote some more imaginative solutions that will help deliver more affordable houses, assist first time buyers and assist struggling private builders."

(GK)