Council Employee Receives Special Recognition At The Scottish Empty Homes Awards
6th March 2024
Dawn Meston from The Highland Council's Housing team won a prestigious award at the Scottish Empty Homes Awards held at The Studio, Glasgow on Thursday 29 February 2024 in recognition of her contribution to bringing empty homes back into use across Highland.
Between 1 April and 31 December 2023, a total of 25 empty properties were brought back into use following Dawn's intervention as Highland's Empty Homes Officer.
Housing and Property Committee Chair, Cllr Glynis Campbell Sinclair said: "Congratulations to Dawn on being presented The Special Recognition Award as a ‘rising star' by the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership for her positive contribution and commitment to empty homes work.
"Empty homes are wasted resources that could be used to help meet housing need. They can also cause problems for residents living nearby and can have a negative impact on the wider community."
Cllr Campbell Sinclair added: "The work around empty homes sit in line with the key priorities outlined in the Highland Council's Local Housing Strategy 2023-28 and forms part of the strategic planning processes for meeting housing need; working alongside other organisations and services to improve social and economic impacts. In rural areas this work contributes to the re-population and sustainment of fragile communities by bringing homes back into use for the purpose they were intended for."
Her caseload currently sits at around 250 cases which reflects the high number of empty homes in Highland (over 3000). A long-term empty home is any privately owned home that has been empty for six months or more.
Empty Homes casework involves providing guidance and information regarding empty properties, including around regulation, loans/ grants, and any initiatives available to bring empty properties back into use, and providing advice on the occupation and management of properties.
If an individual or community has any queries regarding an empty home, please contact empty.homes@highland.gov.uk
Scottish Empty Homes Partnership is funded by the Scottish Government and hosted by Shelter Scotland and the awards hosted by Shelter Scotland.
PHOTO
Dawn Meston receiving award
Related Businesses
Related Articles
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
Members at today's (14 March 2024) meeting of The Highland Council agreed the local authority's new draft Community Wealth Building Strategy. They were also asked to note that a period of public engagement on the draft will now begin, with a final strategy returning to full Council for consideration in September.
