AROUND 900 Scottish housebuilding leaders and representatives will hear of the ‘urgent need’ for strong leadership and decisive action to tackle the nation’s housing emergency.
The Homes for Scotland (HFS) Annual Lunch & Awards 2026 is taking place in Edinburgh today (May 15), one week on from the Scottish parliament election.
The audience will hear from HFS chief executive Jane Wood. Following three consecutive years of decline across all-tenure housing starts and completions together with serious concern over the country’s shrinking land supply, HFS has previously warned that the situation risks developing into ‘catastrophic’ proportions.
Wood will call for leadership from every level of government, as well as from within the housebuilding sector itself, stressing that Scotland’s housing challenges are too large and interconnected for any one side to solve alone. Clear direction, meaningful collaboration, timely decision-making, and consistent follow-through are all key requisites.
She will also ask those in positions of power not to shirk from the realities that builders are facing on the ground, saying, “Now is the time to move from political rhetoric and back and forth to action at pace. And why? Because, we have a moral imperative to help the children growing up in temporary accommodation, the young professionals struggling to get on the property ladder, the growing families needing larger properties and the key workers who cannot find somewhere to live near their jobs.
“Scotland has the skills. I believe it has the ambition. And, in this room, I know it has the expertise to build a better future.”
Guests will also be asked to heed the words of keynote speaker Sir Chris Hoy by fostering a high-performance culture, maintaining positivity under pressure and showing courage, character, determination, and leadership in making the case for more homes. This includes educating new MSPs, dispelling myths around viability and land banking, and speaking with passion about the social, economic and environmental benefits that new homes bring to communities across Scotland.
