More affordable homes were built last year under the SNP Government in Scotland than at any time since the 1980s.

The key figures show SNP support for new housing association and local authority homes has played a key role in keeping the building industry going through Labour's recession.

In contrast to the previous Labour Executive, under the SNP 2,609 more affordable homes were built last year than in the last year of the Labour-Liberal administration.

 Housing and Communities Minister  and SNP MSP Alex Neil said:

"It is encouraging that last year there was a record number of new affordable homes built in Scotland. Indeed, not since the early eighties have we witnessed such a surge in new affordable homes across the country.

"Unfortunately, the level of private new build completions has continued to fall sharply in comparison with previous years.

"However, to help Scotland's hard-pressed house builders we acted decisively and stepped in when the private housing sector was experiencing an unprecedented fall in building activity. We moved quickly to bring forward some of next year's affordable housing budget as accelerated expenditure."