That's the view of local Highland councillor Donald Cameron who is urging immediate action from the UK and Scottish governments to enable a mass building programme to provide social rented housing.

In the Highland region there are over 9,000 applicants seeking a home – with over 1,500 of them in Lochaber.

"Sadly Highland Council and the housing associations, due to external influences, are only scratching at the surface of this problem," Cllr Cameron told the Lochaber News. "Each year, in addition to applicants who have temporary housing, 2,000 people or families present themselves as homeless.

"In many cases they will be given priority, and as Highland Council only turns around 1,000 houses each year you don't have to be a mathematical genius to deduce that the needs of residents are not being met.

"The lack of social housing for rent has reached crisis point and unless there is immediate action from both Governments in Edinburgh and London then we may have another Highland Clearance on our hands."

While there is a strong desire from Highland Council to build new council houses, Cllr Cameron said its aspirations are hamstrung because of a historic debt on its existing stock which prevents further prudential borrowing.

It is within the power of Westminster to write off this debt as it did for councils whose tenants elected to transfer to housing associations. Those councils are now in a position to take advantage of the Scottish Government's £25 million fund to build more homes.

But Cllr Cameron said: "Nationally that fund will not go far but if Highland Council could bid in, the maximum level of subsidy of £25,000 per unit makes it unrealistic when unit costs in the Highlands, where sites can be difficult to develop, are £100,000 to £140,000.

"Housing associations who receive a grant of approximately £75,000 per unit are also struggling in the present economic climate to borrow the differential to provide homes and so little, if any, inroads are being made to solve the housing crisis."

The Fort William and Ardnamurchan member added: "Some people may consider affordable housing in the private sector could be an answer but I would refute that.

"We live in a low wage economy throughout most of the Highland area and it is impossible for most, if not all 9,000 applicants, on the waiting list to find the 20 per cent deposit required to purchase a home and meet high monthly repayments.

"The irony is that today's generation aspiring for a home cannot afford former council houses which are on the market for £100,000-plus. The Thatcherite policy of selling council houses with massive discounts has come home to roost with a vengeance.

"The benefits for one generation have caused hardship for the next, and governments of whatever political hue owe it to today's young families to rectify matters."

Highland Council has lobbied Westminster for the housing debt of £150 million to be written off as it did for other councils, or to have a "holiday" for a few years from repaying £15 million per annum to service the debt in order that funding is available to embark on a house building programme.

The authority has also lobbied the Scottish Government to "level the playing field" and bring the council subsidy for building a unit into line with the £75,000 given to housing associations, enabling it to provide housing and boost the economy and the building industry in particular.

Cllr Cameron, a member of Highland Council's housing and social work committee, attended last week's meeting in Perth of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities' Executive Group for Community Wellbeing and Safety.

He said: "I received assurances that Alex Neil, minister for housing and communities, is sympathetically looking at a way forward for councils which have reached their extent of prudential borrowing.

"Pressure has to be maintained on both governments and the message that any allocation of funding should be based on need and not solely on neat fiscal outcomes has to be rammed home.

"Otherwise geographical imbalances will be created and people will have to move to large urban areas where there is a programme of social housing for rent."

s.taylor@lochaber-news.co.uk

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