Fife Council to spend £16.5m on buying back 150 homes

With the Scottish Government proposing a 26 per cent cut in funding for building affordable homes, one strand of the new approach will be try and spend their way out of trouble.

Last week's cabinet committee was told that homelessness figures in Fife hit record levels in the past year and a new strategy was approved for 2024-27.

READ MORE: Fife Council on the brink of declaring a housing emergency over funding cut

Gavin Smith, service manager for housing access, said: "I think things are moving in the right direction."

Fife Council said more than 1,800 households are classed as homeless and waiting for a tenancy. (Image: Newsquest)

He said hotel and B&B use for temporary accommodation had reduced "quite considerably" and praised his staff for a lot of the "good work" that was ongoing.

Mr Smith continued: "I can remember a time not so long ago when we had over 2,200 people waiting for a permanent tenancy, that number is just over 1,800 at the moment.

"Last year we had over 500 children in temporary accommodation, as of Monday that was 371.

"That's still too many and while I will stress we're working really hard, we're not delivering the service we want to."

The council aim to accelerate the acquisition of properties, 150 homes are to be bought at an average cost of £110,000 each, and they also want to complete 100 'buy-backs' before the end of this financial year.

READ MORE: Fife Council homes 'sitting empty for months'

The strategy report blamed "decades of underinvestment" in affordable homes for the housing supply shortage which has become acute in Fife over the past three years.

Figures reached an "all time high" and although there have been improvements more than 1,800 households are classed as homeless and waiting for a tenancy.

There was a seven per cent jump in applications last year and each night in the Kingdom around 1,000 households, including up to 380 children, are staying in temporary accommodation.

A report pointed out that Fifers who become homeless face a range of "negative impacts" such as poorer education and employment prospects, and deteriorating mental and physical health.

Mr Smith there were lots of reasons for people becoming homeless, such as domestic abuse, the cost of living crisis, substance misuse, poverty, crime and relationship breakdown, and the factors driving it were "not going away"

The council estimate they'll need £67m for the strategy over the three years but, with a proposed cut for affordable homes - they committed to building 1,250 over the next five years - and money for rapid rehousing and prevention work still to be confirmed, he admitted to "significant uncertainty" over future funding.

The leader of the opposition, SNP councillor David Alexander, said high inflation had led to the rising cost of building homes, with delays in new developments, and suggested that increasing the number of acquisitions was the "quickest way to get people into housing".

READ MORE: Council tax bills double for owners of second homes in Fife

The council also aim to speed up the turnover of properties, persuade more private landlords to lease to the council, 'flip' 100 temporary tenancies to permanent and bring back into use more long-term empty homes - last year there were 2,471 in Fife - for social housing, potentially through compulsory purchase orders.

They'll also demolish homes that aren't worth restoring.

Head of housing, John Mills, said: "We've got a legacy issue where some of the stock may be deemed to be redundant, it's not economically viable to bring it up to scratch, and we've been looking at parts of the Touch estate with the City of Dunfermline area committee.

"I think the council is always going to have to do a balancing act between building, buying but also just recognising that some of our stock needs to come down, as we try and bring it up to the higher efficiency standard that's part of the climate change plan.

"There will be an element of demolition in that."