Scotland is to put £3.2bn over the next five years into providing affordable homes.

The money will be provided as grant funding and represents an increase of over £540m on the previous five year allocation to councils.

‘We have already delivered more than 102,000 affordable homes since 2007. Building on this, our aim is to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70 per cent of these for social rent’ said Housing Secretary Shona Robison.

‘The five-year allocations will provide the certainty and assurance the housing sector needs to deliver the ambitious affordable homes target set out in our Housing to 2040 strategy’.

The increased funding comes in the context of Housing to 2042, Scotland’s first long-term national housing strategy published in March 2021.

• Grants worth just over £430,ooo have been made to 13 crofters to improve housing or build new homes in some of Scotland’s most remote and marginal communities.

The Croft House Grants scheme aims to retain and attract people to rural and remote communities. Since the scheme was launched in 2007, more than £22.5m has been awarded to 1,047 families and individuals in rural and island communities.