Scotland's Auditor General: Housing shortage 'could last for 20 years' Scotland's rising population means the country could face a housing shortage for the next 20 years, a report has warned. According to Audit Scotland's Housing in Scotland report, the housing sector faces "significant challenges" after eight years of fewer houses being built than expected. Meanwhile the ongoing economic crisis has seen housing budgets fall by a quarter since 2008. The report states that local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs) have built 14,000 fewer homes since 2005 than the Scottish Government said were needed. In that year, Government research suggested Scotland needed more than 8000 new affordable homes for rent each year. Although the number of new homes has increased since then, just over 42,000 of the 56,000 council and RSL homes needed have been built. Meanwhile, the report found that the number of new private homes built in Scotland has more than halved since 2007/08 when the economic crisis took hold. The Government has set out its vision to provide an "affordable home" for all by 2020. In 2011, it set a target of 6000 new affordable homes a year, 4000 of which were to be social homes. However Audit Scotland said that the supply of housing was not keeping up with levels of need, and the Government needs to clarify how it will work with councils and others in the housing sector to make sure its targets are met. The report called for social housing and affordable housing to be properly defined in terms of tenure and rent levels to provide clarity for the sector. It also recommended that the Government improves the detail and reliability of national information on housing, including an assessment of the needs of current and future populations, including the need for council, RSL and affordable homes. Caroline Gardner, Auditor General for Scotland, said: "Housing is a significant national asset and the sector in Scotland is under increasing pressure. Budgets are tightening, while demand is increasing and fewer houses are being built. Housing needs long-term planning and investment, but planning and funding arrangements have changed frequently. Funding is hard to track which makes it difficult to know if money is being well spent and whether initiatives are successful. The Scottish Government has an ambitious vision for housing. It needs to work with councils and their other partners to make sure that clear, long-term plans are in place to address challenges and to help them tackle important issues like homelessness and the quality of housing. Scottish Labour claimed the report highlighted significant issues with SNP housing policy. James Kelly MSP said: "Audit Scotland's report is a wake-up call to the SNP Government and a damning indictment of Nicola Sturgeon's tenure in charge of housing. It demonstrates that there is no strategy, no vision, no leadership and insufficient resources to deliver the new homes that Scotland needs for the future. We called on the SNP to use the extra money it had to kick-start house building. This was rejected. Earlier this week, the SNP Government accepted the findings of a housing report which simply reverses the policy changes and cuts that the SNP had themselves implemented since 2007. Once again, we have a key area of government which simply lurches from one initiative to another and from press stunt to press stunt. This is no way to run the Scottish Government and is incredibly damaging to Nicola Sturgeon. A Scottish Government spokesman said: "This Government has taken decisive action to improve housing in Scotland. We are investing nearly £900m over three years as part of our target of building 30,000 new, affordable homes over the lifetime of this Parliament. As this report recognises, we are having to deal with Westminster's cuts to our capital budgets, a difficult lending environment, and the UK Government's welfare reform agenda - all of which add to the pressures that we face in delivering new affordable homes. In response to these pressures, we announced this week that councils and housing associations can receive an additional £16,000 from the Scottish Government for every new home they provide - an additional £44m - to stimulate the supply of affordable and good quality homes.