Highland Councillors have agreed in principle to build 750 new council houses over the next five years. Members of The Highland Council's Housing and Social Work Committee have agreed to submit a bid for a programme of 101 new build homes for 2011/12 under the Scottish Government's Innovation and Investment Fund.
They also approved in principle a further programme of 650 houses over the following four years (from 2012 - 2013).
The committee heard that the Council is already committed to new borrowing of £55 million over the next five years in order to fund improvements to existing stock required to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and fund the existing Council house building programme of 107 houses.
Councillor Margaret Davidson, Chairman of the Housing and Social Work Committee said: "I am absolutely delighted that we have the unanimous support of the Committee to seek Scottish Government funding to continue and significantly increase the number of council houses we build in the Highlands. These houses are badly needed in the Highlands to meet a huge demand for affordable housing and we believe the proposed programme is affordable. This will sustain our communities and support the local construction industry."
The maximum grant available for each house is £30,000, which requires new borrowing of £9.595 million for the first phase of building 101 houses.
Councillor Davidson said a small increase in rent (67p), over and above any rent increase required to fund ongoing council house upgrades, was needed to help fund the first phase of the building programme.
The current housing building programme of 107 houses has seen homes built in Inverness (28), Invergordon (23), Caol (12), Conon Bridge (10), Tain (9), Strathpeffer (8), Nairn (8), Portree (6) and Fort William (3).
The locations of the houses to be build in the proposed 101-house next phase of house building is: Inverness (47), Dingwall (12), Kingussie (10), Gairloch (8), Muir of Ord (6), Conon Bridge (6), Dornie (6), and Ardgour (6).