The flexible grant and loan fund announced by social justice secretary Alex Neil is designed to to increase the scale of housing delivery by unlocking strategic housing sites of importance to local authorities.
The Scottish government is working to a five-year commitment to deliver at least 50,000 affordable homes – 70% for social rent - backed by investment of more than £3bn.
New financing mechanisms are also being explored to expand mid-market rent developments.
All planning appeals for housing proposals of more than 100 units will now be recalled to ensure housing land supply issues are given ministerial scrutiny.
Neil said: “Today's announcement underlines this Government’s determination to increase the pace and scale of development to deliver more homes across all tenures. The £50 million infrastructure fund will help unblock sites that are strategically important to councils and that have the potential to accelerate the delivery of thousands of new homes across the country.
“To make that happen we will team up with public and private sector bodies to tackle complex development, financing, infrastructure and planning issues impeding housing supply. We will also explore more innovative financing to build more homes for mid-market rent.”
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