Lack of investment in housing is not good news

Argyll and Bute Council is presenting its updated housing plan as good news (The Oban Times, December 13), but I am disappointed at the low level of investment in affordable housing being provided to Argyll and Bute by the Scottish Government compared with 10 or 12 years ago when annual investment in housing was well over £20 million.

If we look back to 2006, funding was £21.9 million. When we compare that with the 2018/19 allocation of £16.1 million, it can be seen that this is a massive cut of more than 25 per cent. Where we would expect the council to be receiving much more for housing from the Scottish Government than it did 10 or 12 years ago, we see that the next two years are not much better with allocations of only £17.1 million and £18.2 million, well below the levels of funding the council received in the past.

Because of these ongoing cuts in investment for housing from the Scottish Government, the council was informed that it would have to contribute £1.9 million each year for the next three years from its Strategic Housing Fund.

As this fund is council taxpayers’ money, I informed the council that I believed it was unacceptable that council taxpayers across Argyll and Bute were having to subsidise affordable housing to the tune of almost £6 million due to the cuts in funding for affordable housing from the Scottish Government.

The spin that the Scottish Government puts on this is to say that it is now putting funding into building council houses. What it does not say is that it is taking funding from housing associations to do that. Even the council should not be spinning this as good news.

Councillor George S Freeman, Ward 9 – Lomond North.