Produced by Building Relations PR and Burness Paull, More Homes Scotland: Turning a National Housing Agency into a Delivery Machine, captures the findings of a roundtable discussion held in Edinburgh in April with leaders from Scotland’s housing, planning, development, investment and policy sectors.

It finds that Scotland’s housing challenge is not a lack of ambition, but the need for greater alignment across land, infrastructure, planning, finance and policy.

The report comes as housing delivery remains one of the biggest challenges facing the Scottish Parliament. It reveals support for the ambition behind More Homes Scotland and warns that the agency risks becoming another blocker unless it is empowered to remove barriers, coordinate decision-making and unlock stalled delivery.

The need for action is underlined by Scottish Government housing statistics published in March, which showed that new housebuilding activity in Scotland fell in the year to December 2025, with 17,336 new homes completed across all sectors, down 13% on the previous year, while starts fell 6% to 14,999.

Affordable housing delivery is also under pressure. The figures showed that Affordable Housing Supply Programme completions fell by 25% in 2025, with starts down 15% and approvals down by 9%. As of December 2025, 32,479 affordable homes had been delivered towards the Scottish Government’s target of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.

The report argues that Scotland’s housing challenge is systemic, rather than confined to any single part of the sector. Participants said delivery is being held back by a fragmented system in which decisions on land, planning, infrastructure, finance and public policy are too often made separately, adding delay, cost and uncertainty to already complex projects.

National housing agency start date

More Homes Scotland is being established by the Scottish Government to help increase the number of homes being built across Scotland. Announced earlier this year, the agency is intended to focus on delivering housing of all types, with an emphasis on simplicity, scale and speed. It is expected to begin operating from 2027-28 and become fully functional in 2028-29.

Calling for More Homes Scotland to be designed as a practical delivery body, it is hoped the agency will have the authority to coordinate across government, local authorities, infrastructure providers, funders and developers. Key recommendations include giving the agency a clear purpose, intervening earlier on stalled sites, improving routes to land and patient capital, and ensuring policy ambition is tested against viability and deliverability.

The report also calls for housing to be treated as economic infrastructure, recognising its role in growth, labour mobility, health outcomes, productivity, regeneration and community resilience.

Participants highlighted several immediate barriers to delivery, including constrained land supply, inconsistent planning interpretation across Scotland’s 32 local authorities, fragmented infrastructure approvals, policy layering, viability pressures and a lack of long-term patient capital for smaller builders.

Rachel Colgan, founder of Building Relations, said: “This report captures a clear and urgent message from across the sector. Scotland does not lack ambition when it comes to housing, but it does need a more joined-up, practical and empowered system for delivery.

“More Homes Scotland has the potential to be a catalyst for real change, but only if it is designed with authority, clarity and commercial credibility from the outset.”

The discussion also highlighted the potential role of SMEs in increasing housing supply, particularly in more rural areas of Scotland. However, contributors warned that smaller builders continue to face major barriers, from long planning timescales and upfront capital exposure to infrastructure uncertainty and limited access to long-term finance.

The report also highlights the need for a more active public role in land assembly, infrastructure funding and site de-risking, with contributors supporting the idea of a ‘land shop’ model that would give developers access not only to land, but to the practical support needed to unlock it.

Louise Chambers, real estate partner at Burness Paull LLP, said: “Key sites which could deliver valuable housing can be held back by fragmented ownership, existing infrastructure constraints or other related issues, and could be addressed differently. At the moment that burden falls on the developer, which adds more time, more cost and more viability pressure.”