SNP and Green ministers are under fire after failing to deliver on promises to spend £30 million tackling the nation’s rural housing crisis.
New figures show the Holyrood government has invested less than £18 million from the Rural Housing Fund and Island Housing Fund since 2016-17.
It falls short of the £25 million ministers pledged to spend on mainland home-building projects through the Rural Housing Fund by 2021, while another £5 million was earmarked for island schemes.
A recent survey found nearly half of all young people in the Highlands and islands are planning to move away in the next five years, exacerbating a depopulation spiral.
Housing was a key problem, with 76% saying there are not enough affordable homes to rent or buy.
Underspend
In answer to Tory parliamentary questions, Housing Secretary Shona Robison revealed that £10.455 million has been spent to date from the Rural Housing Fund, less than half the original budget.
However, £7.215 million has been invested on the islands, which is more than the £5 million originally anticipated.
About 300 homes had been built or approved under the funds by the end of 2021.
They were in the Highland, Moray, Argyll and Bute, Western Isles and Perth and Kinross council areas.
The cash is used to offer capital support grants and loans for new affordable housing, refurbishment of existing empty homes, as well as feasibility studies.
The recent spending emerged as the Conservatives prepared to lead a Holyrood debate on the nation’s housing shortage on Wednesday.
‘Pull out all the stops’
Conservative housing spokesman Miles Briggs said: “The SNP-Green government are presiding over a housing crisis in Scotland and that is particularly acute in our rural communities.
“It is yet another prime example of the SNP overpromising and under-delivering.
“Funding is being distributed far too slowly to meet the housing needs in rural communities, which SNP and Green ministers have consistently ignored during their time in office.
“They should be pulling out all the stops to attract people to come and live in these communities and a supposedly dedicated rural housing fund should be at the heart of that.
“Instead, they have short-changed them year after year since launching this fund.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said it had delivered more than 6,000 homes in these areas over the course of the previous parliament.
“We have committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes across Scotland by 2032, with at least 10% of these in our remote, rural and island areas, including through our £30 million demand-led Rural Housing Fund which is in addition to our overall housing supply budget,” he said
“We are also developing a Remote, Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan to bolster this work.”