Hundreds of council houses in the Banff and Buchan area are sitting empty, a new report has revealed.
As of the end of January, there were 602 empty properties in the region.
Housing officers have now revealed that half of those are in the Banff and Buchan areas.
On Thursday, the communities committee will be asked to discuss ways to get the houses occupied – with many of them requiring work to bring them up to energy efficiency standards.
Around 2,000 properties in the region are stone built and now require internal wall insulation (IWI). This had been due to be carried out but the team “struggled to deliver” and many of the properties are still empty awaiting work.
In his report, housing manager Dave Thomson states: “Policy and resources committee agreed, January 19 2017, to hold these properties at void as the work required is disruptive to tenants and upgrading when the property is empty is advantageous.
“The decision taken was with the best intentions of undertaking the upgrades through the housing improvement programme and a new housing repairs IWI team.
“Unfortunately the mobilisation for the housing improvement programme contractors has taken considerably longer than anticipated and they’ve been unable to undertake the quantity of IWI upgrades envisaged.
“This has resulted in a larger than hoped quantity of properties being held at void pending IWI upgrades.”
Of the 240 properties kept void in Aberdeenshire for IWI upgrades, 49% have assigned contractors to do the work.
To tackle the extensive number of voids in Banff and Buchan, Buchan and Marr, the report suggests: “IWI voids in a good condition (meaning minimal repairs) are to be repaired and re-let.
“Those with major works required are to be held for IWI upgrade.”
The report also breaks down other reasons for the empty properties, such as regular turnovers.
Members of the committee have been recommended to agree to the IWI approach to voids.
