Housing

That the Parliament recognises the pivotal role of the housing market to the Scottish economy; is concerned that housebuilding in Scotland has fallen to a 30-year low; further recognises the need to ensure that there is an adequate supply of good quality housing to buy and rent in the private and social sectors; notes the success of the right to buy policy in that it empowered people to choose their preferred form of housing tenure, allowed over half a million households to own their own home and strengthened local communities; encourages the Scottish Government to remove the limitations on the right to buy contained in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 and to provide higher discounts under the modernised right to buy as a means of increasing capital receipts to invest in building affordable homes for those on low incomes and to boost jobs in the construction industry; further encourages the Scottish Government to consider legislative reform to ensure fairness and equity in public housing and also to allow social houses to be allocated to people with local connections so as to protect the long-term sustainability of Scotland’s communities, and further calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that landlords make greater use of the enforcement of tenancy agreements to tackle antisocial behaviour.