The home building industry has welcomed the extra £31m which the Scottish Government announced on Monday to be used to increase the supply of affordable housing across the country but reiterated its call for the introduction of a new shared equity scheme which would directly benefit the private sector.

Jonathan Fair, Chief Executive of Homes for Scotland, the organisation which represents companies building 95% of new homes built for sale in Scotland, said: "A key focus of this additional funding will be the unblocking and kick-starting of private developments to help deliver more homes for mid-market rent and low cost home ownership.

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"Whilst perhaps only modest in the context of an industry which contributed £6bn to the Scottish economy prior to the start of the credit crunch, when taken together with the ancillary benefits arising from even greater rented homes investment, it nonetheless represents a welcome boost to a sector so vitally important to the country’s social and economic wellbeing."

However Mr Fair said one way the Scottish Government could directly help our industry would be to use some of these additional funds to introduce a tailored version of the Homebuy Direct scheme, currently available in England.

"At a time when buyers may be showing increasing levels of interest in purchasing new homes, the big stumbling block to converting sales remains the availability of mortgage financing. The Homebuy Direct model offers an equity loan for part of the purchase price on affordable low cost homes for sale specifically within new build private developments, co-funded by the Government and the developer.

"This has already proved an effective mechanism to enable First Time Buyers, the industry's lifeblood, into home ownership."

(GK/JM)