`Biggest investment of our times’

Plans to increase rents by over two per cent and invest more than £100 million into housing in South Lanarkshire have passed the first hurdle.

More than 500 new council houses are set to be built in 2021 after the council’s housing committee agreed to endorse the proposals on Wednesday, February 17.

Chair of the committee, Councillor Josh Wilson (Hamilton South), said it was the“biggest investment in affordable housing in this area in modern times”.

£73.6 million will be invested in the housing stock including the construction of 504 new council houses.

A further £7 million is to be spent on upgrading heating systems, £3 million on improving insulation and £1 million installing new kitchens and bathrooms.

Funding of £2 million has been earmarked for environmental works and £3 million for energy efficiency works.

Rents will be increased by 2.2 per cent instead of the originally proposed 3.75 per cent in response to the coronavirus pandemic and following consultation with tenants.

Executive director for housing Daniel Lowe said the budget scrutiny group and Tenant Participation Coordination Group were “fully supportive”of the one-year strategy with a commitment to return to a multi-year strategy from 2022. Both groups considered the increase to be“fair”with 74 per cent of survey respondents adding that they were either good or very good value for money. The council will also enter the final stages of its rent harmonisation process with just 56 of the 25,007 tenancies to be moved to the harmonised rent level by 2024.

Mr Lowe said:“Our work priorities have remained fairly consistent. It continues to be increasing supply of council housing, continuing to make sure our stock meets the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, that our stock meets energy efficiency levels, legislative compliance works and environmental works.

“In order to meet these priorities, we are proposing a capital programme of just under £101 million which is the largest plan we have had for a period.

“In order to help fund this programme, a rent increase is needed. In previous years, we had agreed a multi-year approach with tenants which helped both with their budgeting and our budgeting too. This year, in light of the continued financial uncertainty as a result of the pandemic and its impact on many of our tenants, we reviewed that plan. We reduced our proposed level of rent increase from 3.75 per cent to 2.2 per cent and have taken that forward as a one-year strategy.

“Based on the 2019-20 Scottish Housing Charter returns, South Lanarkshire has the seventh lowest rent of all local authority landlords and, in addition, we have also got the lowest rent of all social landlords operating in South Lanarkshire.

After the meeting, Councillor Wilson added: “This will be the biggest investment in affordable housing in this area in modern times.”

The proposals will be put to the council’s executive committee for final approval today, February 24.