Current status: Answered by Mairi McAllan on 26 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the average time has been between initial project approval and start on site for affordable homes in each year since 2010.
Prior to 2018-2019 site start dates were not collected as there was no requirement on our previous recording system for this information. Due to this, approval dates were used as a proxy for start dates. The following table provides an average time between approval and site start date for affordable homes between 2018-2019 and 2024-2025.
Financial Year | Average Time between Approval Date and Start Date (Working Days) |
2018-2019 | 107 |
2019-2020 | 124 |
2020-2021 | 92 |
2021-2022 | 91 |
2022-2023 | 68 |
2023-2024 | 50 |
2024-2025 | 27 |
Once a project has been approved, this does not necessarily mean an immediate progression to site start. Progression from project approval to a contractor being able to mobilise a site can take time. There are also instances where a project may face unforeseen delays due to planning or infrastructure constraints.
Homes acquired on the open market and those acquired through programmes such as the Home Owners’ Support Fund (HOSF) and Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme may have the same approval and site start date as is the process when acquiring an affordable home in this way. These homes have been excluded from the figures above as have projects such as Local Affordable Rent Housing Trust (LAR) and PfP Capital Mid Market Rent Initiative, where an initial bulk approval was granted with homes to be delivered over a number of years. There are also instances where a project may be withdrawn after approval stage and we have excluded these projects. We have also excluded projects which have been approved but have not yet started on site.