Renfrewshire Council has been allocated £46 million from the Scottish Government for new affordable housing.
Councils and house-builders across Scotland’s 32 local authorities will have the opportunity to plan ahead with grant subsidies guaranteed for the next three years until 2021.
Paisley MSP George Adam said: “The announcement that Renfrewshire will receive £46.244 million over the next three years provides the certainty that Paisley and the sector needs to keep progressing and ensures we keep up the momentum to reach the Scottish Government’s target of 50,000 new affordable homes by 2021.
“Increasing the supply of affordable homes is a key SNP commitment and plays a vital role in helping to tackle poverty and inequality in Paisley.
“Committing funding until the end of this parliament will help ensure that Scotland leads the way in building homes that are high-quality, efficient and affordable, and will strengthen our house-building sector and the estimated 14,000 jobs that the affordable housing supply programme supports each year.
“The SNP believes that everyone in Scotland deserves a warm, affordable home and with a huge number of affordable homes approved last year, we are making great progress towards that aim.”
Councillor Mags MacLaren for Paisley North West said: “This is good news for Renfrewshire. This is more money than was originally planned and should result in more affordable housing being built.
Councillor Kenny MacLaren, also Paisley North West added: “The decision to provide the funding details for the next three years provides the council and its partners to plan their investment and provide certainty on the amount of funding available until 2021.”
Gavin Newlands, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North said: “This announcement captures the priority and commitment that our SNP Scottish Government has for ensuring that everyone can live in a warm and affordable home of their own.
“Housing is one of the most common issues that is raised with me by local constituents and I’m sure there’ll be many local people welcoming the £46 million coming to Renfrewshire from the Scottish Government. This funding announcement will help more local people live and own their own home, as well as helping to provide more opportunities for people living in Renfrewshire.”
Mhairi Black, SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South said: “It’s great to see the Scottish Government providing over £42 million for new social housing in Renfrewshire over the coming few years.
“This funding commitment provides certainty for Renfrewshire, to allow the Council and partners to plan for the next few years.
“Increasing the supply of affordable homes is a key commitment – and vital to the SNP’s ambition of tackling poverty and inequality in our society.
“With a huge number of affordable homes approved last year, we can be confident that our programme is on course to deliver for Scotland.”
The funding allocation for Renfrewshire is:
- 2018/19 – £13.846 million
- 2019/20 – £15.665 million
- 2020/21 – £16.713 million.
Announcing the funding, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said this would support the government’s ambitious commitment of delivering 50,000 affordable homes across Scotland by 2021.
He said: “We are ensuring Scotland has homes that are high-quality, efficient and affordable.
“Today, we are announcing to local authorities how much money they’ll have to invest in affordable housing until the end of this Parliament. It means they can plan these new affordable homes now – with the certainty that the funding will increase year-on-year.
“This is also an important signal to the house-building sector in Scotland and demonstrates our commitment to the industry and the estimated 14,000 jobs our affordable housing supply programme supports each year.”
Mr Stewart continued: “Increasing the supply of affordable homes is a key commitment – and vital to our ambition of tackling poverty and inequality in our society.
“Much has been achieved in our first year of our new affordable housing programme and these figures are evidence that Government investment is stimulating house-building in the affordable sector.
“With a huge number of affordable homes approved last year, we can be confident that our programme is on course to deliver for Scotland.
“Today’s announcement will provide the certainty that local authorities and the sector need to accelerate this progress and ensure we keep up this momentum to reach our goal of 50,000 new affordable homes by 2021.”