Falkirk council pauses repairs for three months amid Scottish Government housing emergency

Homelessness in Falkirk now stands at more than 1280 cases, with a 10% rise in applications compared to last year.

Yesterday, Falkirk Council announced that it was pausing all non-emergency repairs for three months as it concentrates all resources on getting 350 empty council homes ready to be lived in.

Housing manager Kenny Gillespie told members of Falkirk Council’s executive on Thursday: “We need to look at prioritising our most vulnerable.”

He explained to members that the decision had been made in light of the Scottish Government’s housing emergency which was recently declared.

While councillors were clearly concerned at the decision, Mr Gillespie explained the background.

He said: “Within Falkirk we have over 1280 homeless cases at the present time.”

Some of those families are being accommodated in temporary accommodation – including 160 families with young children.

“We need to look at prioritising our most vulnerable and we need to do that as quickly and swiftly as possible,” Mr Gillespie said.

In order to get as many homes available as possible Mr Gillespie said all staff in the council’s building and maintenance department had been moved onto repairing empty homes, known as voids.

“They are the best people who know our properties and they are the best people who can turn this around as quickly as possible,” he said.

He assured councillors that 100 new-build properties would also become available to be let soon which will also free up other council properties as tenants move into them.

“We are also coming into a period when we will see a significant rise in void properties, over the next three months.

“We want to use the resources to accommodate as many people as possible.”

“We appreciate this will cause a lot of concern to tenants but we are still carrying out emergency repairs and we will respond to emergency situations if they happen.

“This is a situation that nobody wants but from a council perspective we want to target all available resources to help those who are most vulnerable.”

Councillor Anne Hannah, the leader of the Labour Group, said it was clear that many members are concerned that this could “slip into a permanent arrangement”.

She was given assurances that the project would be monitored closely and results reported to councillors.

In a series of report to Falkirk Council’s executive, members heard that the council is faced with rising costs to build homes at a time when funding from the Scottish Government has been cut.

Members heard that despite the challenges, 210 new affordable properties have been provided in the past year through council and housing association new-builds and buying back ex council houses.

But the report makes clear that buying ex council houses is becoming more difficult as prices continue to rise and there are fewer on the market as people cannot afford to move on, due to the prices and high interest rates.

The council is also launching a new deposit assistance scheme to help people move into private tenancies, although there is a shortage of homes for rent in the Falkirk area.