Chamber and committees

Our evaluation reports are available via this link: Shared equity schemes: evaluation reports - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The evaluation concluded that OMSE provides significant additionality, and is effective in enabling lower income households to overcome price and deposit constraints to become a homeowner.

The Scottish Government has continued to monitor the performance of OMSE which delivered over 900 affordable homes for priority groups and first time buyers in 2023-24. In 2022 we also made several evidence based adjustments to the scheme to further support priority groups into affordable home ownership.

Based on previous years’ financial spend we expect that the current budget could provide up to an additional 466 units.

Within a backdrop of wider real term funding cuts we provisionally allocated £27m Financial Transactions for FY 2024-25 to re-open OMSE on 20 June 2024.

Based on the previous financial years spend and units, we have estimated that this allocation could provide an estimated 466 units.

Details on the application process and eligibility criteria for the Open Market Share Equity Scheme (OMSE) can be found in our administrative procedures: https://www.gov.scot/publications/open-market-shared-equity-omse-administrative-procedures-2020/ .

I met the Chinese Consul General Zhang Biao on 12 June at the Consul General’s request. The Consul General raised the prospect of a friendship arrangement between the City of Edinburgh Council and Kaohsiung. I made clear that the Scottish Government could not instruct, nor influence local authority decision making, regardless of the topic or issue and re-iterated that the Scottish Government policy regarding Taiwan had not changed.

The Scottish Government’s Aviation Statement will be published on 24 July ( https://www.transport.gov.scot/publication/aviation-statement ) and will set out the actions we will take on national and international connectivity, and on decarbonisation.

The actions and outcomes described in the Aviation Statement have been shaped by our commitments and existing policies on aviation, and the feedback received in our public consultation. The Statement contains a mixture of short, medium and longer term commitments. It covers the period to 2045, in line with our commitment to attaining overall net zero emissions.

The business case work is of vital importance, and we are continuing to progress this with input from the project partners. There are outstanding matters, both financial and technical which require completion before the business case review can be concluded and presented to Ministers. All partners are focused on resolving these issues and finalising the business case.

Due to wider funding constraints, we have operated the Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) with a reduced budget in 2024-25.

Following extremely high demand in June 2024 and in order to ensure that we settle all properties within budget, we have paused new applications from 19 July 2024 and will review remaining budget allocations in the coming months.

The scheme is likely to reopen when current passports expire and/or are withdrawn making funding available for reallocation.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-28494 on 19 July 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The following table shows a breakdown of the spend for the Open Marked Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) in each financial year:

The Open Market Shared Equity Scheme (OMSE) is available to first-time buyers and priority access groups. OMSE is a demand led scheme and as such The Scottish Government does not estimate how many priority access applications there will be per financial year.

Applicants to OMSE have the choice to declare on their application which route they are applying under, whether that be as a first-time buyer or a priority access group. This means that some first-time buyers may also be disabled, a veteran etc however this information will not be captured as part of their application.

Due to the demand led nature of the scheme we also do not project estimates for geographical or Local Authority areas.

Published information on OMSE home purchases in each Local Authority area for previous financial years can be found here: Affordable Housing Supply Programme - More homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .