THE Scottish Government attaches a high priority to affordable housing and to addressing homelessness (“Rise in homeless at Christmas", The Herald, November 2). We are investing £1.7 billion over this current parliament and are on track to exceed our 30,000 affordable homes target including 20,000 homes in the social rented sector. This is 20 per cent more than the previous administration, yet in the face of capital budget cuts.

These targets are not the height of our ambition for Scotland’s affordable housing. The First Minister announced last month that if re-elected, our target will be to build at least 50,000 new affordable homes in the next parliamentary term.

In addition, it is this Government that reintroduced council house building and has protected existing supply through abolishing the right to buy. This means that since 2009 we have delivered 5,666 homes compared to the six built before we came to power. And in the next 10 years we will prevent the sale of up to 15,500 houses over a 10-year period by instead keeping them in our affordable housing stock.

Our actions also include maintaining Scotland’s leadership in financial innovation by working creatively with our partners to deliver more for less public investment. The contribution from innovative financing approaches using government guarantees, loans, grant recycling and new sources of private funding is substantial and growing.

We believe in a fairer Scotland for all and good quality affordable housing is central to making that a reality.

Alex Neil,

Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities & Pensioners’ Rights

Scottish Government, St Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh.