Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Conference in Aberdeen Maxwell said it was essential to see greater numbers of homes reflecting the “significant” amount of money invested in social housing. 

Maxwell also welcomed the large number of responses to the Scottish Government’s discussion paper on the future of housing, Firm Foundations, and said he’d like to “spark a debate” via the National Conversation on how greater powers could enable the Scottish Government to make an even bigger impact on the future direction of housing in Scotland.  

Maxwell said: "Firm Foundations recognised that housing is absolutely crucial to many of the Scottish Government's overarching aims - because giving people access to a decent home in a sustainable community provides the foundations for stable and fulfilling lives. 

"But it also acknowledged that to realise our very ambitious plans to build at least 35,000 new homes every year by the middle of the next decade, we need to make the system work more efficiently.” 

He said the social rented sector is a key part of the Government’s approach, and as part of that the proposed changes to the way housing subsidies are distributed have been made because the government wants the sector, “…to deliver more homes for the significant sums of taxpayers’ cash it receives.” 

He continued: "Chiefly, we think introducing a more strategic approach to housebuilding will deliver more houses for the thousands of Scots who badly need an affordable home. 

"We're proposing that lead developers would provide other housing associations with new stock through a partnership agreement which would still leave the other associations in control of the management of the properties built for them.” 

Maxwell said he wanted to reassure housing associations that what the Government proposals will not mean the end to small-scale and local providers, adding: "Indeed, what matters is an organisation's ability to meet need and deliver services effectively and efficiently, not its shape or size." 

He also highlighted other recent measures designed to improve the image of the private sector, such as the mandatory private landlord registration scheme and the introduction of the Repairing Standard and the Private Rented Housing Panel, which Maxwell said “gives tenants the reassurance they need to make informed choices and a point of redress when needed.”