Housing finance is worry to families

Stuart Borrowman says:“The housing system has changed hugely with more owner occupiers, a reduction in council house numbers, housing associations active and private lets now a familiar feature. This has worked well for many families but for too many people, accommodation of a good standard with choice in location is not open to them.

“Neither a mortgage nor a council house is within the reach of many people.

“Dealing with people who can’t get a house to meet their needs in the area where their wider families live, their children go to school or that fits their financial resources and level of physical ability is the most distressing aspect of every councillor’s workload. Council house building has resumed in recent years but is slow - the current five-year plan has produced a fraction of what was claimed - and there are limits to the ability of the council to keep borrowing to build without higher levels of financial support from the Scottish Government.

This has meant the council has often chosen poor sites because they are on land it already owns.

“There are challenges with council housing: allocation systems can seem unfair and the council needs to work smarter on repairs organisation.

“Nonetheless, the best contribution the council can make to creating a better balance in housing is to campaign for the Scottish Government to support its own building programme.

“It also needs to address aspects of its own planning system to make it more attractive for private housebuilders.”