EDINBURGH: Sale of council houses will be halted in much of the Highlands for five years in order to ensure supplies of affordable homes in areas under pressure. Some 2,000 tenants will be covered by the ban and the Scottish Executive estimate that it may affect some 570 potential sales.
Tenants whose tenancy began before September 2002 will, however, be able to buy their homes.
The ban affects council or housing association homes in Inverness, Badenoch, Strathspey, Lochaber, Nairn, Ross, Cromarty, Skye and Lochalsh.
Highland Council is the second Scottish local authority to suspend the right to buy homes, the first being East Renfrewshire.
The Scottish Executive is giving pressured-area status to these regions to ease the shortage of affordable houses. The Housing Act 2001 gives ministers power to designate any part of a local authority area as "pressured". Thousands of council houses have been sold off under right-to-buy law since the1980s. Communities minister Malcolm Chisholm said the executive fully recognises that affordable housing is a crucial factor in sustaining local communities.
Margaret Davidson, Highland Council's housing and social work chairperson said while more housing-association rented houses are being built, these are not enough to replace the council housing that has been sold through right-to-buy.
Highland Council has nearly 9,000 people on its waiting and transfer list.
Posted
on : Wed, 16 Nov 2005 13:10 GMT | Mortgages News
By : Mark Richardson
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