What is the Incentivising New Council House Building Fund?
This £50 million fund aims to incentivise local authorities to begin building new homes and is the first such central government support to councils in a generation.
- Funds are allocated to maximise the number of additional homes built of sufficient quality, in the right places according to the following principles.
- The council has the ability to manage and maintain the new stock effectively.
- The council has prudential borrowing capacity and/or uses other financial resources.
- The required subsidy from the Scottish Government for any proposed development will be no more than £25,000 per home.
- The area has housing need and the new homes will contribute to the council meeting its 2012 homelessness target.
- The council can demonstrate that it has well developed plans to ensure delivery of the proposed new housing.
- The number of units that are built is maximised within the resources available, but not at the expense of having to compromise on design quality.
Funding has already been allocated to 17 councils to build 1,343 houses across Scotland. A second round of funding closed for applications in September 2009. Decisions on the successful applicants should be announced at the end of the year.
How are applications considered?
Applications to the fund are considered jointly by COSLA (along with its expert housing advisers) and the Scottish Government against the above principles and related criteria.
Other developments
The Scottish Government and COSLA are also jointly examining how councils can continue to maximise their contribution to provision of additional affordable housing over the longer term, in a sustainable way.
Housing Statistics for Scotland
Historic trends in the building of new houses showed peaks in the early 1950s and late 1960s resulting primarily from programmes of post-war reconstruction and slum clearances. From a high point of about 41,000-43,000 completions a year, mainly in the public sector, the level of new build fell during the early 80s to under 20,000.
Since then, there has been an overall upward trend and construction of new council housing has been increasing over the last three years. Further information can be found on the Housing Statistics for Scotland web pages.