Published on:
08
March 2013
A cash boost of £521,000 to help families into new social homes has been welcomed by Clackmannanshire Council.
The funding was announced this week by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and comes on top of the housing budget already allocated to the Council.
Housing, Health and Care Convenor Councillor Les Sharp said: "This funding is good news for Clackmannanshire. We are now looking at how we can maximise this new funding to ensure we that meet local people's housing needs, a central focus of our housing strategy, complimenting and expanding on our existing investment programme.
"The Council has recently approved a number of ventures aimed at delivering new housing. In 2012 the Council supported the development of new mid rent housing in Coalsnaughton through the National Housing Trust initiative. The Council has also supported the Empty Homes Initiative aimed at tackling empty private properties in town centres and we have advanced plans to use our own Council land to deliver further affordable housing.
"In our recent budget we announced plans to launch a Local Authority Mortgage Scheme this will come to the next Council meeting for full approval, all of which will help around 180 people onto the housing ladder, with the additional spin-off benefits for training and employment that happens during construction."
The Council's Housing Strategy, which was approved by Council in December, identifies that we need more homes to meet the future growing population and smaller household sizes.