19.02.20
West Lothian Council allocates £100m to housing stock
West Lothian Council has allocated £100m from its budget to increase and improve its housing stock over the next three years.
Approved at a council meeting yesterday (Feb 19) the new investment will see over £55m spent on the creation and acquisition of new homes in the region.
Included in this is the completion of the council’s current new housing programme with the addition of a further 250 new build homes.
The council has set goals of delivering 3,000 new houses from 2012-2022, 2,000 of which have already been delivered as affordable homes through work with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and other partners since 2012.
The remaining £45m allocation will be invested into existing housing stock, improving and upgrading homes in the area.
This includes internal upgrades, window and door refurbishments, and aesthetic improvements such as painting and fencing.
Houses will be made more energy efficient thanks to enhanced wall insulation works and central heating replacements to ensure all properties comply with Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH) standards by 2020.
Executive councillor for services for the community, George Paul, said:
"West Lothian Council remains committed to providing new, high quality homes for the people of West Lothian.
"A significant amount of investment is going towards the completion of the council's new build housing programme with new homes being constructed across West Lothian and a number of houses being acquired in a drive to further increase the housing stock."
"As well as providing new council homes, there will be a renewed focus on the maintenance and refurbishment of properties, to continue to maintain the Scottish Quality Housing Standard.
"The vast majority of our tenants indicated via consultation that they are happy with the services we provide and the council will endeavour to always look to see how we can continue to improve for our customers."