THE FORMER leader of the Scottish Lib Dems visited a new housing development in Kinglassie. 

Willie Rennie, North East Fife MSP, was at the Blythe Meadows site to mark Homes for Scotland’s SME Awareness Week.

The Quale Homes development will see 210 homes - including 45 affordable homes in a range of sizes - built on the eastern edge of Kinglassie.

The project has already created new apprenticeships and is expected to employ 200 people over the course of five years.

Mr Rennie said: “I was delighted to be invited to visit Quale Homes’ site at Kinglassie and to see their work in progress.

“The housing crisis is more severe than at any time since I have been a parliamentarian.

"People are desperate to find a home. For many it is all but impossible to live in the communities where they grew up."

A Homes for Scotland report found that the proportion of new homes sold by companies building between three and 49 homes each year has fallen from around 40 per cent in 2017 to 20 per cent in 2023.

Over a third of housing delivery in rural and remote areas is undertaken by SME developers. These areas are often more challenging from logistical and market perspectives.

Despite this crucial role in the housing sector, the number of SME home builders being dissolved has increased in recent years, and was 45 per cent higher in 2023 than in 2019.

Mr Rennie said: “Continuing to build more homes is vital and SMEs are a key part of the housing sector, as well as delivering other benefits including jobs, apprenticeships, and contributions to local green spaces and infrastructure.”

Jane Wood, chief executive of Homes for Scotland, added: “As well as their importance in delivering housing in rural and remote areas, our data also reveals that SME home builders are key to unlocking the brownfield sites which the Scottish Government has said it wants to prioritise.

“However, SME home builders have particular challenges in relation to the viability of their operations, not least in relation to economies of scale, ever increasing regulation and the upfront costs associated with residential development.”