Greens Pledge Power To Buy Land To Tackle Housing Crisis
The Scottish Greens will today underline their radical housing agenda by promising to bring forward reforms to legislation to give councils the power to buy land cheaply to encourage the building or more and better homes by the public sector, housing associations and co-operatives.
Speaking ahead of a visit today to Grampian Housing Association in Aberdeen, Scottish Greens co-convener Maggie Chapman, the party’s housing spokesperson and MSP candidate for the North East, said:
“Scotland can build more houses, to a higher quality, with the same budget by paying less for land. In the next parliament, Greens will push to give councils the power to buy land for housing at existing use value, at the moment too much land is priced out of reach because it is valued according to what it could be worth if developed.
“Buying land cheaply was possible in Scotland until legislation in 1959. It remains the norm in countries such as Germany where they have much better housing stock as a result. Scotland has a housing crisis but with a strong group of Greens we can push Holyrood to be bold and help councils, housing associations and housing co-operatives deliver the homes we so badly need.”