'Ghost towns and lost homes': Inside Scotland's RAAC crisis

Two years ago, a crisis began to unfold across Scotland.

A lightweight concrete, now known to be dangerously prone to crumbling, was discovered in public buildings and hundreds of council homes.

Around 3,000 properties, including parts of Aberdeen, Dundee, and Tillycoultry in Clackmannanshire, were found to contain Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), leaving residents facing the risk of collapse and financial ruin.

After two years of uncertainty for residents, the Scottish Government moved to accelerate affordable housebuilding, freeing £10m for Aberdeen City Council to offer homeowners the full value of their properties.

But while homeowners in the Granite City welcome the breakthrough, hundreds of households in Dundee continue to face a long fight. Scotland Tonight has been following four people as they navigate life amid the fallout of RAAC.

‘It has been heartbreaking’

Lynn Winstanley says the ordeal has had a 'horrendous' impact on her mental health — Lynn Winstanley says the ordeal has had a ‘horrendous’ impact on her mental health STV News

Aberdeen Council is looking to demolish and rebuild more than 500 properties in Balnagask, Torry, that were identified as having RAAC.

Lynn Winstanley was one of the homeowners who found out through a letter that the property she bought two years prior contained the dangerous material.

“When we found out we first had RAAC, it was a case of: number one, we didn’t know what RAAC was, so the first thing we did was Google,” she said.

“But when the second letter got delivered through the door – the one that said, ‘You definitely have RAAC, it could result in your roof collapsing in, and they were going to be starting to move out the tenants – that’s when it hit us. It was very, very distressing.”

Her community of 500 affected homes emptied quickly. Around 360 council tenants were moved out, leaving only a small number of homeowners behind.

Lynn said it felt like “a ghost town.”

Hundreds of homes built with RAAC in Torry, Aberdeen STV News

“At night time it’s a deathly silence – and it’s so dark, a lot of times street lights aren’t working, it’s quite eerie, scary because you think you’re on your own. I’m the only person in my row now.

“I’ll be listening at night for noises because we’ve had a lot of homes getting ransacked and broken into, and the slightest noise you think is somebody breaking into the flat above me. Plus, it’s so dark you can’t see, so there could be anybody hiding behind my fence, even, and I wouldn’t know they were there.”

Lynn says the ordeal has taken an emotional toll on her.

“The impact has been horrendous – I’ve had panic attacks. I’ve kind of withdrawn from a lot of things.

“I find it hard to sometimes go out of my house. It’s just daily, it’s there all the time. It affects everything in your life.

“It’s just heartbreaking.”

The recent announcement that residents will receive pre-RAAC valuations brought relief – but the strain of the past two years still lingers.

“At first I was like, ‘yes, we’ve won, we’ve won.’ It’s a sigh of relief.

“It’s good that people will get what the houses are valued for. But it’s like they’re giving in one hand, taking away in the other – because they’re now not giving you home loss. You’re still losing your home.”

‘I couldn’t sleep’

Mark Sweeney describes Aberdeen Council's RAAC U-turn as 'a moment of joy' — Mark Sweeney describes Aberdeen Council’s RAAC U-turn as ‘a moment of joy’ STV News

Mark Sweeney, 30, has poured his savings into renovating his home in Torry.

Over the years, he invested thousands in upgrades – new doors and windows, a new bathroom, and a full refit of the living room and kitchen. Then, in November 2023, the council’s letter arrived.

“The penny drops, and you realise that this is going to be a long ongoing battle,” he recalled.

“Tens of thousands less than what I paid for the property – and that’s before you even take an account any renovations I might have made to the property. That’s just lost money at this point.”

Mark said his biggest concern was ending up in severe debt – he even resorted to selling his car, a decision he admitted was “painful”.

His situation has left him struggling with anxiety and depression, making it difficult for him to sleep.

“I have a really bad habit of every waking moment, the second I wake up, I go to the news, and my search history just says RAAC News Aberdeen.”

Mark said the area has grown quiet since tenants were moved from their homes.

He describes the nearby playing field from his childhood – once alive with children, now largely empty – as a sign of the change.

“You would have kids playing football in the field, and they would be running home for dinner, but nowadays you don’t really see anybody. It hits really hard – I’ve got many memories of cuts and scrapes in that field.

“It’s a big drop in population. This used to be a bustling little community, always something going on, always something happening.”

Mark said hearing the news that residents would receive the full value of their homes was “a shock to the system.”

“It was a moment of joy – because I thought that we’d still be here a couple of years from now. It could be five years, ten years, but lo and behold, it only took a couple of months.

“All this effort that we’ve put in – obviously for protests, rallies, fundraising, so on and so forth – it meant something.

“We achieved our goal, and ultimately, we won.”

RAAC ‘limbo’ for Dundee

RAAC: Dundee is the worst-hit city in Scotland STV News

Thousands of homes and public buildings across Scotland contain RAAC, a lightweight concrete used from the 1950s to the 1990s and now known to be at risk of sudden collapse.

Many lenders will not mortgage RAAC-affected homes, leaving owners unable to sell except at drastically reduced prices. Councils say they are responsible for their tenants – but homeowners face potentially ruinous personal costs.

A 2016 Housing Infrastructure Fund commitment allowed Aberdeen City Council to request flexibility to access £10m from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, supporting residents affected by RAAC – even though the original HIF rules did not cover these costs.

But campaigners say cities such as Dundee, which has the highest rate of RAAC in Scotland, with nearly 900 affected homes, have been “left in limbo.”

‘Dundee is facing a crisis’

A Dundee couple who lost out on over £45,000 selling their RAAC-hit family home say the city is facing a growing “crisis.”

Wayne and Yvette Hoskins, who launched the Dundee RAAC Campaign Group, say their home in Whitfield was initially valued at £100,000, and a young couple offered the full asking price.

But the sale fell through when the buyers failed to get a mortgage due to the defective concrete in the roof.

After repeatedly cutting the price, the pair were ultimately forced to sell the property for only £55,000.

Yvette said: “We thought everything was fine. We initially accepted their offer. We then found our perfect dream home for us as a family. Then we quickly found out that a potential buyer couldn’t get a mortgage.

“Losing that £45,000… We’ll never get that back.”

Yvette added: “No lender will provide a mortgage on any property with RAAC. End of story.”

The mum-of-two said it has had an “intense” impact on her family.

“Our children were really heartbroken and disappointed. As were we.”

In 2023, Wayne and Yvette received a letter from Dundee Council warning of RAAC in their home, a situation that left hundreds of households facing financial jeopardy.

“It’s challenging, because at the opposite end, you’ve got the young folk that have just bought their properties, then shortly after that, are informed they have RAAC. They have full mortgages, they can’t borrow any more money because they are already up to full mortgage. How are they supposed to raise the money and finance this?

“We have somebody that’s 21, another one that’s 104. I mean, 104 years old. What voice do they have? What financial help have they got? There’s nothing.”

Yvette says she has thrown herself into her campaign work – though it’s had a knock-on impact on her health.

“There are nights when I only get two or three hours of sleep because all I do is think about RAAC.”

Wayne added: “I tell her to slow down – she won’t, it’s not in her nature to slow down. That’s why I married her.”

The couple are calling for the government to launch a national fund to address RAAC.

“All we’re asking is for a little bit of help,” he said. “Somebody, somewhere has to take responsibility.”

A spokesperson for Dundee City Council said: “We participate in the Scottish Government’s recently constituted RAAC in Housing Leadership Group, which is aimed at assessing the extent of RAAC in social housing across Scotland.

“Issues such as the potential costs of remediation in housing affected by RAAC will be more fully understood following completion of the evaluation that is currently underway.”

‘There will be no Scottish national RAAC fund’

Housing secretary Mairi McAllan said Aberdeen Council was able to apply for the grant through the affordable housing supply programme, due to a housing and infrastructure funding agreement which was put in place in 2016.

She said she is working with Dundee City Council and local homeowners to find a solution.

“I understand how worrying it is for anyone suffering from the presence of RAA in their property. On the one hand, councils have a responsibility to their tenants in council properties with RAAC, and I’m keen to make sure that is attended to. But I understand homeowners sometimes don’t have the capacity to respond to it the way they might otherwise.”

McAllan said the Scottish Government is not in a position to set up a national RAAC fund.

“There is one government across the UK with the financial flexibility to respond to something entirely unexpected like RAAC – that’s the UK Government,” she said. “Not only that, many properties were built and sold under Right-to-Buy, which far pre-dates the devolution era.

“I’ll continue to call on the UK Government to come to the table; they absolutely have a responsibility here. But whilst they continue to decline, I’m not just going to allow people to stand still. That’s why I’m making consideration of requests for flexibility for existing budgets in Scotland.”