united front call as council wants £153m written off
Credit crunch set to hit north housing debt
Published:
Highland councillors have called for a united front in lobbying Westminster over writing off the region’s £153million housing debt.
It comes after it emerged the credit crunch could see the amount of income Highland Council generates from selling its houses fall by more than £2million.
The council had set a budget for its housing revenue account for £12million for 2008/09, and officials assumed that £8.975million of the total would come from the sales of existing council houses.
But yesterday the housing and social work committee were told it was now believed the estimated income from sales will be £6.68million.
And in order to meet the current housing revenue account capital programme of £12million, additional resources will be required, including borrowing almost £2million.
The money is used for such things as repair and maintenance of the council-house stock and investments in building new affordable homes in partnership with housing associations and other organisations.
Councillor Donald Cameron said: “We have seen the Government, like other government’s throughout the world, struggling to get the economy going again.
“What would stimulate this is to provide the housing that is required and to provide the jobs which will generate spending in the local community.
“To me it’s a no brainer. We must put more and more pressure on central government.”
During the debate committee chairwoman Margaret Davidson revealed that she would be meeting with Highland MPs today to discuss the region’s housing debt.
Last night, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP Danny Alexander said there was a “strong case” for writing off the region’s housing debt.
He said that matters have “changed substantially” since he and fellow MP John Thurso met with the treasury minister in June.
And he added: “The pressure of the credit crunch and the need to have public money available to kick-start affordable housing, get the building sector going and getting the homes built that people need, we should be going back to the Government and putting across the case.
“The current economic climate make that case even stronger.”
