High-rise flats saga is not over yet!

What’s the difference between a two-apartment council house . . . and a three apartment?

If you answered“one bedroom”- go straight to the top of the class. If you answered“there is no difference”– go straight to South Ayrshire Council’s Housing Services Department and ask for a job interview. Via the‘Freedom of Information’and a concerned reader – it appears that out of 112 people relocated from the Riverside Place ‘High Flats’, a quarter of them were rehoused in three-apartment houses scattered across Ayr.

All the properties are‘two apartment’ homes – one living room and one bedroom.

To use housing department language – two apartments satisfied their“housing need”.

So why move them to properties exceeding their‘housing need’?

Well, that’s because panicking South Ayrshire Council had to put them somewhere . . . . anywhere in fact!

Is giving people an extra bedroom – when they don’t require it - not in breach of Housing Service rules that forbid“under occupancy”.

Oh yes, it is. Is this the“best value” from local authority owned property that SAC is mandated to deliver?

Oh no, it isn’t. Apart from the extra bedroom, the other difference between a two-apartment and a threeapartment is a difference in rent.

I’ve been given an example of one man who was moved from his one bedroom flat in Riverside Place to a two bedroomed house in James Campbell Road. His rent went up because of the extra room – and his council tax went up because his new home was in a higher rate band.

He tells me he is now paying an extra £850 a year through no fault of his own. That can’t be right.

And if any other housing tenants are experiencing the same – I’d like to hear from them!

The decision to demolish a huge tract of South Ayrshire’s serviceable housing stock remains as irrational as it is inexplicable.

And whatever SAC might tell you – it’s a decision that cold still be reversed in the courts . . . unless the new SAC class of 2022 do it first!