New strategy to boost social housing supply

North Ayrshire Council approved a major housing plan to increase social housing.

Cabinet members gave the green light to a five-year strategy focused on acquiring homes to help boost the local housing stock and bringing more empty homes back into public use quickly.

The Housing Acquisition Strategy supports the wider Strategic Housing Investment Plan which has a target of building more than 1,660 new affordable homes for Council tenants by 2031.

The Council has already delivered almost 1,000 new homes in North Ayrshire in recent years and this new-build programme will now be complemented by the expansion of the acquisition programme.

It is hoped the new strategy will help address pressures on the North Ayrshire Housing Register and help achieve the strategic outcomes set out in the Local Housing Strategy.

​The Council confirmed that housing acquisitions will be funded through existing budgets with the support from Scottish Government grants including the Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund.