Council Response to Vision for Scottish Housing
The Highland Council has welcomed plans by the Scottish Government
to reform housing provision across Scotland to give first time buyers and tenants a better deal. The Council’s Housing and Social Work Committee will be briefed on the main findings of the discussion document 'Firm Foundations - The Future of Housing in Scotland' at its meeting on Wednesday (7 November).
Councillor Margaret Davidson, Chairman of the Housing and Social Work Committee, said the Council would make a detailed response to the consultation.
She said: “We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to increasing housing supply and choice and the ending of the right to buy on new social housing. This mirrors the ambitions of the Council’s Administration.
“Over the years, the Right to Buy has limited access to affordable housing and has been the biggest barrier to sustaining communities and reducing homelessness so we welcome an end to this practice with all new social housing.
“In our Programme for Administration, our aim is to work with the Scottish Government, local partners and the private sector to enable 6,000 new homes to be built in the Highlands over the next four years.”
Note: Over the past 10 years, The Highland Council has sold 5,644 houses. Receipts from those sales totalled £120,396,248. The Council has not built any new homes in that time. The annual income from the sale of council houses contributes towards the cost maintaining the Council’s stock of 14,100 houses. In November 2005, the right to buy a council or housing association rented house was suspended in many Highland communities for five years to safeguard the bank of affordable housing in these "pressured" areas.
The Scottish Executive agreed the Council could safeguard some rented houses in the following "pressured areas":
Housing in Caithness or Sutherland was not covered by the designation.
Pressured area designation means that tenants who took up a tenancy with the Council, or with an affected housing association, on or after 30 September 2002 in these designated areas had their Right to Buy (RTB) suspended for five years, i.e. until November 2010, whilst the designation is in place. This includes tenants who were given their tenancy through a transfer or mutual exchange or, in some cases, succession.
Council tenants whose tenancy started before 30 September 2002 are still be able to buy their home, as will those who don’t live in the designated areas.
Council Response to Vision for Scottish Housing