Could the Highland housing emergency be deeper, more complicated and more expensive than previously thought?
Could the Highland housing emergency be deeper, more complicated and much more expensive than previously thought?
That appears to be the thinking of most of those who took part in a recent Holyrood debate discussing the national outlook.
• HOUSING CRISIS: New report shows over 30,500 homes in Highland area face housing needs
• Highland Council confirms it faces a £2.8 billion ‘housing challenge’ to build 24,000 new homes
The handling of the issue by both the Scottish Government and Highland Council was called into question during the Labour-led debate amid warnings that the emergency is about more than just a shortage of affordable housing.
“The housing emergency facing the Highlands is real, and draws into conversation more than just the current severe shortage of available housing,” Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Edward Mountain said.
“We must also consider EPC (energy performance certificate) ratings, legislation on private letting, VAT, council tax, the council’s handling of their own resources, and the fact that companies are going south of the border to build.”
Half of Highland Council’s social housing does not currently reach an EPC rating of C, according to Mr Mountain, and he estimates that it would cost the local authority £340 million to bring its stock of housing up to the standard set to be demanded by legislation from 2033.
He also claimed the council was not on top of its brief - as it could not give him a final figure for the actual number of domestic properties under its control.
And he said it presides over 356 empty social homes representing 699 empty bedrooms.
The council effectively paid itself £169,000 a year in council tax for these empty properties, he said, while it would need to invest £619,000 to bring them up to habitable standard.
During the debate at Holyrood he said: “I did a bit of work on the houses that Highland Council rents out, because that is one way of solving housing problems, but the responses to two FOI requests brought out different figures on how many council houses there are in the Highlands.
“One suggested that there are 14,494 and the other suggested that there are 15,127. That means that 633 houses have been lost. I am not sure what the council has done with them, but I am sure that it will find them.”
He added: “That suggests that the management is not great.”
Speaking afterwards he said: “The situation is not one-dimensional, so the Scottish Government’s response must not be, either.
“We need more social housing, and we need to make sure that the stock of council houses meets the required standard. Over half of council houses do not reach EPC C, which will be a requirement by 2032. It is my belief that it could cost in the region of £340 million to upgrade those council houses to the necessary level.”
The lack of available homes on the rental market is also a significant problem as we reported in April - when Inverness had just seven properties available and one letting agency suspended viewings within an hour due to the volume of applications for one property.
Mr Mountain said: “We also need a vibrant private let market, but following the increased regulations imposed by the Scottish Government we have seen private lets drop from 360,000 to 300,000. This a real problem in the Highlands, where rural housing is in short supply.
“Private housing across Highland, both owned and let, needs to increase its heating efficiency,” he said. “This is why I would support a decrease in VAT on any works undertaken on privately let housing to ensure better energy efficiency.
“All this needs to happen together if we are to keep families in the Highlands, and if we want to enable those who want to move here to do just that.”
