Affordable housing stock protected

Perth & Kinross Council has been awarded Pressured Area Status to protect the availability of affordable rented housing stock in 21 letting areas across Highland Perthshire and Greater Perth.

The effect of this status, granted by Scottish Executive Ministers, will be to suspend the Right To Buy for certain tenants living in these areas for a period of five years.

In Highland Perthshire and Greater Perth there are 1405 houses to which Right to Buy applies. The designation means that 300 current tenants will have their Right to Buy suspended. An estimated 300 new tenancies created during the next five years will also have Right to Buy suspended.

The areas were identified by the Council, using criteria laid down by the Scottish Executive, as being under the greatest pressure for socially-rented housing.

The mechanism, which was included in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, is intended to safeguard the continued availability of social-rented housing where the Right To Buy may otherwise lead to a serious shortage of properties.

In Highland Perthshire over 50% of the housing stock owned by the Council 1980 has been sold and there is a low turnover of social rented properties. In Greater Perth the proportion of all the housing stock that is in the socially-rented sector is below the Council-wide average.

Housing and Health Committee Convener, Councillor Gordon Hunter, said: “There is an excess demand for social-rented and other forms of affordable housing throughout the Perth & Kinross area, which the Council is addressing though its affordable housing policy and local housing strategy plans.

“The suspension of right to buy through Pressured Area Status is only one means of tackling the shortage of affordable housing.

"Many councillors, whilst accepting right to buy exists and why so many people took advantage of it, want to consider the Executive’s assessment of the impact of Right To Buy and whether more can be done to reduce its impact on meeting housing needs in Perth and Kinross."

Housing and Health Vice Convener, Councillor Peter Barrett, added: “The Council will closely monitor the situation in the areas that are not included in the Pressured Area Status application and will continue to facilitate new development and apply the Affordable Housing Policy to address housing need in these areas."

Only those tenancies that commenced on or after the 30th September 2002 will be affected by the Pressured Area Status designation.

Tenancies that began before this date can still buy their home as before and will only be affected if they transferred to an alternative Council property that is in a designated pressured area.

All new tenancies that are created during a period of designation would have their right to buy suspended. When the Council receives formal notification of the Scottish Executive’s decision it will write to all tenants in the designated areas explaining how the designation affects them.

Applications for Pressured Area status is just one aspects of the Council's ongoing work to address the issue of affordable housing in the area.

The action plan drawn up in an effort to address the shortage of affordable housing in Perth and Kinross is currently being developed further.

As part of this approach the Council is setting up an Affordable Housing Co-ordinating Group with representatives from housing, planning services and property services to work on both short-term and long-term actions to solve the problem.

The Group will look at identifying and acquiring more sites where affordable housing could be built, and will assist in speeding up the sales process of any sites that have been earmarked.

It is also hoped that agreement can be reached with the owners of private estates for more land to be acquired for building.

Another innovative scheme being used to encourage affordable house builds in Perth and Kinross is land banking. Over £900,000 accrued by Perth & Kinross Council through reducing the Council Tax discount on long-term empty and second homes is being invested in buying land.

This land will be earmarked for affordable housing developments in an effort to ease housing pressures.

The money has been accrued since April 2005, after the Scottish Executive announced that local authorities would be given discretion to reduce the 50% discount on Council Tax enjoyed by second homes and long-term empty properties. The Council has used these discretionary powers to reduce the discount on some of these properties to 10%.

Over the financial year 2005/06 this generated income amounting to £901,576, which will all be invested in land for affordable homes.