Failure in Scotland’s housing emergency is ‘delivery not demand’

“The urgency has disappeared into process.”

Alex Banks from The Press and Journal recently covered our CEO Neil Edgar’s message to the Scottish Rural and Islands Housing Association Conference on how Scotland is facing a Housing Delivery Emergency

🔹 598 days waiting for a build to start
🔹 32 days to manufacture, deliver and assemble
🔹 Around 60 homes possible for MAKAR to deliver since the housing emergency was declared in May 2024
🔹 Yet only one affordable home delivered

The article also hears from MAKAR board member Jeremy Leggett, who sets the housing emergency alongside Scotland’s climate and biodiversity emergencies. Without affordable rural homes, there is nowhere for the workforce that rural economies and nature recovery depend on to live.

Small rural developments are where offsite timber construction comes into its own, homes that can be assembled in days, are low-carbon to build and run, and have energy bills close to zero.

Read the full article: Makar boss: 'Failure in housing emergency is delivery not demand'

Read the full speech in our recent blog.