"A sizeable part of the population, it is clear, has no wish to own a home. They cannot all lack ambition or be ensnared by benefits traps. The Scottish Government recently recognised this direction by ending the right to buy for all new social housing to safeguard stock for future generations. With the market dismally failing to deliver homes and a cataclysmic gap between supply, affordability and demand, any serious attempt to tackle the housing crisis must involve a major public sector house building programme"
Only 13 houses were built by the Highland Council between 1998 and 2007 (HwLDP Monitoring Statement page 15). The number of Highland Council owned houses fell by over 5,000 during the period as a result of Right-to-Buy sales. The number of new units built by Housing Associations has increased steadily through time, as has the number of units made available through tenures other than conventional rental, over the period 1998-2007, some 1222 completions of what APTSec assumes to be of mixed tenure (Monitoring Statement; Table H3; Page 16). Unsurprisingly the number of applications for homelessness has almost tripled since 1999.
Looking at housing need, The Structure Plan quotes from the Council's Housing Strategy that almost 5,000 affordable houses would be required in the period 1998 to 2003; actual completions were around 700 during the same 5 year period. Two studies by Heriot Watt University show that the need for affordable housing has increased as house prices have increased at a rate well above incomes. (Monitoring Statement pages 32 and 33)
What does this mean? Well according to the Statement;
- As a percentage of current stock, the greatest need is in Skye and Lochalsh and Nairn, and the smallest in Badenoch & Strathspey and Sutherland.
There are also plans for 8 houses at an old hospital site in Caol.
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