CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves has been urged by Scottish Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan to use her Budget on Wednesday to deliver a boost in capital spending that will “reinvigorate housebuilding.”

Eighteen months after the Scottish Parliament declared a national housing emergency, Ms McAllan made the pleas as she travelled to London to showcase to private investors the profits that they could reap should they plough cash into Scotland’s housing sector.

The housing secretary pledged in September that the Scottish government would embark on a four-year £5 billion housing programme with the hope of delivering up to 36,000 new homes, but that plan, to help tackle a housing emergency that has left a record-breaking 10,000 children facing another Christmas in temporary accommodation, remains unfunded.

Ms McAllan argued the Scottish government’s plan had “created strong foundations in Scotland to ramp up housebuilding,” but warned: “These plans could be hampered by the UK government’s planned cuts to our capital funding and in a shortfall in financial transactions, which are a vital tool in delivering homes across Scotland.”

As well as calling for a boost in capital investment from the Treasury, she also called on Ms Reeves to consider wiping local authority housing revenue debt — a debt that stood at a staggering £5.5bn in Scotland in 2023-24, costing councils £343 million a year in charges, according to Scottish government figures.

Arguing the move would “encourage more investment in housing,” Ms McAllan added: “Whilst in London I will be demonstrating my ambition to bring more investment to Scotland and increase housing supply.

“I urge the Chancellor to show the same ambition and reinvigorate housebuilding across the UK, with significant benefits to the sector in Scotland.”

The British government was contacted for comment.