The home building industry has applauded the range of initiatives announced on Tuesday by Glasgow City Council in order to stimulate much needed development in light of the credit crunch.

The measures unveiled by city council leader Steven Purcell include: increased flexibility in the Council's land disposal policy to make it easier for projects to get off the ground, deferment of requests for the payments companies have to make to develop sites and more flexibility in the way the Council allocates grants for social housing.

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The creation of a £36m Better Glasgow Fund will pay for regeneration projects. An extension of a Business Investment Fund will offers low-cost loans to small and medium-sized businesses.

Jonathan Fair, Chief Executive of Homes for Scotland, the organization which represents companies building 95% of the country’s new homes, said: "At a time when its receipts from planning applications are down £1m, Glasgow’s decisive action and flexible team-working approach to ensure that investment continues to be made in businesses, homes and jobs is to be congratulated. With much new development now effectively on hold, this is precisely the sort of action that we have been calling for across Scotland.

"The challenge now is getting other Local Authorities to follow Glasgow's bold lead."

(GK/JM)