Ruth Davidson insisted the Scottish Conservatives are more than just the "No to independence party" as she announced a policy blueprint to tackle what she describes as Scotland's housing crisis.

The leader said the national shortage in accommodation is the worst since the Second World War and that the housing situation had worsened since the SNP came to power in 2007.

With Scottish Labour engulfed in a leadership contest following Kezia Dugdale's sudden resignation, Ms Davidson said the Tories had a "huge opportunity" to put their ideas to the country.

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In the run up to the 2021 Holyrood election, the Conservatives must show that they are a government in waiting, she said.

Ms Davidson made clear she is as "committed as ever to defending the Union" but argued the political debate needs to move on from constitutional issues.

In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research in Edinburgh, she said: "My resolution over the coming 12 months as leader of the main opposition party in Scotland is to try to turn the page."

She told an audience: "I have been challenged in recent weeks to set out what we in this party, the Scottish Conservatives, stand for.

"Are we simply the No to Independence party? Of course not - our roots go back nearly 200 years before the referendum and we have always advanced property ownership."

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Although Brexit will continue to dominate much of the political debate, Ms Davidson said there was also a "yearning amongst many to see a political debate in Scotland focus more heavily on the bread and butter issues".

With only approximately 15,000 new homes being built a year - almost half the number of a decade ago - Ms Davidson said: "The last time we had a housing crisis on this scale was in the aftermath of World War 2.

"Back then, politicians had the courage to act in order to get building. We now need to find the same courage to address a crisis that is of similar proportions."

The failure of the housing market is "depriving thousands of young people one of the most basic opportunities in society, the ability to buy and own your home." she argued.

Ms Davidson said: "This is something Conservatives simply cannot ignore. It is a bedrock of Conservative belief that we should encourage a property-owning democracy.

"Yet, increasingly, we now have something more akin to a property-owning oligarchy."

To help increase housing supply she said the Scottish Government needed to "face up to the absolute and total mess that is the planning system of this country".

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But she warned forthcoming legislation will likely "fail to be sufficiently radical in making it easier to build private sector housing".

To address such problems, she said: "To begin with we would support the creation a new national Housing and Infrastructure Agency to be tasked with delivering the basic infrastructure - the roads and public services - around which new housing can be built."

She also said the Scottish cabinet should include a person focused solely on housing, saying: "If we really do want housing to become a national priority, then the man or woman delivering it should be at the cabinet table."

She suggested there should be some areas where individuals and small developers should be able to build new homes without first obtaining planning permission.

The leader also called for more new towns to be built, saying: "I think we should also asking whether we need to match the ambition of our post-war generation seventy years ago, and examine once again the question of new towns."

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Five new towns were built in Scotland - East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld, Livingston and Irvine - with the last of these dating back half a century.

Ms Davidson said: "A report for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has proposed that, today, as many as six to eight new communities are required across Scotland.

"It is time to seize the moment - and look at a series of new generation new towns."