COUNCIL housing is between a rock and a hard place and there is no way forward but a choice of hard options. That was the message coming from housing convener Councillor Garry Coutts at a meeting in the Town House on 23 May when a good crowd turned out to hear what was in store for tenants in the public sector.

The trouble stems from 20 years back when the government of the day started allowing council tenants to buy their houses at a discount that is frequently less than the council still owed on the property. “For every £1 of rent tenants pay, 55p goes towards debt on housing,” Mr Coutts said.

While the right-to-buy policy was countrywide, the effect was particularly badly felt in the Highlands where property was desirable and more often bought by tenants particularly in rural areas, where building costs in remote areas were considerably higher and did not enjoy the benefits of bulk discounts, and where such a high proportion of houses were relatively new because of the oil industry and, in Lochaber, the paper mills.

However, Councillor Coutts said there was no point in looking back, and what had to be done was look to the future and the options before housing authorities and tenants. He highlighted the problem – not enough money to improve existing council housing. A team of experts estimated that £1051m was needed to upgrade council houses but it was likely that they would be able to spend £306m.

A tenant survey revealed:

• 83% wanted more affordable housing for rent
• 73% wanted to see structural improvements
• 72% wanted to see disability improvements made
• 68% wanted to see new kitchens and bathrooms installed.

Tenants had also said – and Mr Coutts said he agreed – they wanted to see a more efficient repair service and an effective system for dealing with antisocial neighbours. “We want the same as you,” he told the meeting. “The big question is how?"

The options he outlined were:

1. to continue as we are, but this would undoubtedly lead to a sharp increase in rents.
2. ask for permission to borrow more new money. This would only work if the Government agreed to write off existing debts. The Council was pursuing this most vigorously but the Government was not being particularly sympathetic to the idea.
3. keep the 20% of houses with low levels of debt and transfer the rest to housing associations or cooperatives. "We're not talking privatisation or introducing lots of Rachman-type landlords," he said, going on to explain that such bodies WOULD get existing debts on properties written off.
4. “Or we could go the whole hog and transfer all the houses to associations or trusts. “The downside of this would be that the Council would have a lot less interest in how the housing was managed. Just now you can always complain to your councillor and vote him out if you don't like the housing policies, but you couldn't if the housing wasn't Council-owned.”

Mr Coutts explained that nothing was going to happen in a hurry. There would be consultation throughout the summer and in September councillors would get a report. The feasibility of an action would have to be looked into, tenants would have the opportunity to vote and then it would take at least 12-18 months to implement what was agreed.

A lively question and answer session followed with a wide range of housing matters being raised. Among these were the loss of money to the Council of houses lying empty; Mr Coutts said that though there were some areas, such as South Kessock, where there could be up to 60 empty at any one time and they would like to see a better take-up, the problem across the Highlands as a whole was minimal compared to other authorities.

Some queried why there was no right to buy sheltered housing and it was pointed out that to stop restricting who rented such houses would defeat the whole point, if (say) you got a young couple playing loud music in amongst the elderly. Many said it seemed crazy the Government was prepared to write off debt to housing associations when they wouldn’t for councils.

Mr Coutts concluded by saying that the repercussions of any decision could be far-reaching. “If Highland Council is not the landlord, we have to ask if Service Points will be viable? And Council accountants, lawyers, architects as well as DLOs (direct labour organisations) and housing staff would all be affected. We haven’t started scratching the surface of the implications yet," he said.