Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Committed to quality homes
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Addison Act – something which changed the lives of thousands of families in the UK and paved the way for the large-scale construction of council housing.
“Homes fit for heroes” was the pledge made after the end of the First World War and, through the 1919 housing and town planning act, the building of council homes began in earnest across towns and cities in Britain.
Providing affordable and good quality accommodation for people to rent was at the heart of the act; but also to rebuild after the devastation of the Great War and to clear slum housing which was blighting many parts of the country.
Much has changed over the past century.
New-build towns have been created such as Cumbernauld here in North Lanarkshire; new tower blocks were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s to meet changing housing needs; and, of course, policy changes in the 1980s allowed people to buy their council homes.
This policy, initiated under the Thatcher government, allowed people to buy their homes, but hugely reduced the number available for rent as the building of new council houses all but stalled; that policy has now been scrapped in Scotland.
Here in North Lanarkshire, in 2017 we announced a major change in our housing policy in consultation with local people, with the decision to demolish our towers and some of our low-rise blocks and replace them with modern homes fit for the future.
This programme is taking a big step forward with the demolition of Northburn Place in Airdrie underway, with 30 new homes planned; site clearance is also expected to begin early next year at Holehills with 150 new properties planned there.
And, in Coatbridge, building work is underway on 58 new council homes on the site of the former St James’ Primary School in Old Monkland.
North Lanarkshire has the most ambitious new-build council housing programme in the country which will see us provide 5000 new homes for rent by 2035.
We have already completed the building of more than 700 new high-quality homes and our innovative open market and buyback schemes are enabling us to increase the number of properties available to rent for local people.
As the largest local authority landlord in Scotland, we are determined to continue investing in new and existing homes.
So many people have positive memories of living in council homes and we are determined to build on that.
We are committed to helping improve lives by giving people good quality homes and communities to live in which we believe will still be flourishing in another 100 years.