Whilst recognising Shelter's demands for 30,000 affordable rented homes by 2012, the home building industry has highlighted the need to increase housing supply across all tenures as the only realistic means of solving Scotland’s growing housing problems.

Jonathan Fair, Chief Executive of Homes for Scotland, the organization which represents companies building 95% of new homes built for sale across the country, said: "Though we agree wholeheartedly with Shelter that Scotland is indeed staring into a 'housing abyss' as it has consistently failed to build enough homes to meet demand across all tenures, Homes for Scotland questions the idea that the Scottish Government will have sufficient funds in the current budget round to make this sort of commitment.

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"With other enormous pressures to reduce public spending looming on the horizon, the key challenge is to find ways of attracting and encouraging private finance into the affordable housing sector by building for rent, shared equity and low cost sale in the open market. This is the only way of guaranteeing both current and future generations of Scotland will get access to the range of quality housing options they deserve."

Homes for Scotland say they are working with the Scottish Government to help achieve this.

(GK/JM)