Ross-shire councillor calls for compulsory purchase orders to tackle housing crisis

A ROSS-SHIRE councillor has called for urgent compulsory purchase orders to be issued to help tackle an escalating housing crisis.

Dingwall and Seaforth Liberal Democrat Angela MacLean (pictured) has called for more land to be unlocked for affordable house building along with moves to pave the way for the necessary infrastructure.

While addressing colleagues on the council’s audit and scrutiny committee, her party was issuing a press statement highlighting a wider housing crisis.

It described Scotland’s housing problems as “a blot on the nation,” based on fresh data from the charity Shelter Scotland which showed that, last year, a record 21,290 people received help from its housing advice and support services.

The Dingwall and Seaforth councillor told the committee: “We’re supportive of house building but part of the issue in Dingwall,for instance, is that the infrastructure’s not there to build more houses.

“In Muir of Ord, most of the (zoned) land has been developed already and was developed very quickly. In Conon Bridge, there are more houses but infrastructure has meant holdups.

“I’m keen on derelict properties being compulsorily purchased much quicker.”

She praised the work of housing officer Allan Maguire and his team, but said they would achieve considerably more with the luxury of more land being made available.

Mr Maguire acknowledged the demand as “the single biggest issue we’ve got”.

He said: “There’s no such thing as an easy development site any more. Most of the land we’ve been able to develop quickly we’ve done it and there are infrastructure difficulties at a lot of the sites.

“We’ve been in very positive discussions with the Scottish Government about getting additional funding to open up infrastructure and the planning team have set up a housing planning team to help fast-forward as many of our applications as possible.

“The reality is there is a limitation of economically deliverable land within the Highlands and that is most areas of the Highlands – and that’s the next challenge for us for the next couple of years.”

Planning director Stuart Black reaffirmed that the council was trying to deliver more housing.

“Dingwall is a priority area for us,” he said. “We’re looking at the current traffic modelling for Dingwall to see what more can be put in to try and ensure it.”

He emphasised that more difficult sites meant a higher development cost.

Highland Council’s share of Scottish Government housing investment for 2017-18 was £28.9 million increasing to £40.1 million this year with a commitment to build an average of 500 “affordable” homes each year between 2017 and 2022.

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