Council successful with bid to resume council house building

Council house building is to be reintroduced in the Highlands after a gap of 14 years.

The Highland Council is delighted that it has been successful with its bid for £1.275 million funding to the Scottish Government to support the construction of 51 new Council houses.

The housing units are earmarked to be built on Council-owned or Highland Housing Alliance sites - at Caol (8 units);  Dingwall North (10 units); Invergordon (12 units); Corsee, Nairn ( 9 units); and Scotsburn Road, Tain (12 Units).

The new housing will be mainstream two and three bed properties with the exception of those at Nairn, which will be designed for older people or people with other health needs. All the new properties will be comparable to the new energy efficient homes recently developed by the Highland Housing Alliance at Kildary.

Councillor Margaret Davidson, Chairman of Housing and Social Work, said: “This is great news.  Building 51 houses is not going to solve our acute housing needs but it will be an important first step towards, hopefully, bigger future schemes.

“Building more council and housing association rented housing in the communities where they are most needed is a key part of the Council’s strategy for dealing with one of our biggest challenges – the shortage of affordable housing.”

As part of the bid, the Committee will also use £1.02million from its Landbank Fund, £1million from its Housing Revenue Account as well as additional borrowing of £2.57million.