Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Five-year £170m funds to help construct homes
North Lanarkshire Council is to receive £170m in a five-year Holyrood funding package to help fund the construction of affordable homes.
The authority will receive £38m from the Scottish Government in this financial year, with sums of approximately £33m in each of the following four years, announced in new resource planning figures.
Neighbouring authority, South Lanarkshire Council (SLC), will receive £156m in the same period, meaning the two councils will receive the fifth and sixth highest sums in Scotland in the £3.2 billion national funding distribution.
North Lanarkshire Council (NLC) is currently working to build 5000 new council houses across the authority area by 2035, with 339 currently under construction and a further 93 due to get under way during this year.
The council’s Pamela Humphries told the Advertiser: “This grant funding of £170m over five years will help support a range of council and housing association projects across North Lanarkshire, including a number in our town centres.
“This money will supplement the continuous and multi-year investment from the council, as well as housing associations, towards developing new, highquality, affordable homes.”
Neil Gray, the Airdrie & Shotts MSP, welcomed news of the government funding, noting the total being invested across Scotland represents an increase of more than £541m compared to the previous five-year allocation.
He said: “One of the issues that comes into my inbox most is the fact that people across North Lanarkshire are waiting
sometimes years on a council house. This funding can be used for affordable and social housing, so anything that will reduce the waiting list has to be welcomed.
“It will go a long way to helping constituents get a place to call home, and I look forward to seeing the results of the building that this grant will support.”
NLC is due to complete a development of 58 homes at Lismore Drive in Coatbridge next
month, while work has begun on nine homes for rent and 10 supported accommodation units at Bank Street in the town centre.
Ms Humphries said: “The project has begun with the partial demolition of 7-13 Bank Street buildings, and with a contractor expected to be appointed later this year.”
The former Orrs department store in Airdrie is due to be knocked down and replaced by
20 flats for rent and two groundfloor commercial properties; while work is also underway in the town at the cleared sites of former flats at Northburn Place, and at Dykehead Road in Holehills where the site of three demolished towers is being transformed into 150 homes, to be completed by 2023.
Councillors on the housing committee will receive an update on future investment
and construction plans at their September meeting.
Ms Humphries added: “This plan outlines our affordable housing investment priorities.
“It will deliver a mix of new, quality housing across North Lanarkshire, by the council and housing associations, to help deliver our housing strategy priorities and support our residents, communities, town centres and local economy.”