Anger at affordable housing grant

The council said waiting lists for affordable housing was growing

Scotland's smallest local authority has hit out at the Scottish Government over the level of funding it receives to provide affordable housing.

Clackmannanshire Council was allocated �2.1m to fund building in the Wee County over the next year.

The local authority said the grant represented the lowest annual award it had received for seven years.

The council passes the money it is given for social housing to the Ochil View Housing Association.

In 2007, the authority said it received �4.5m from the government and that this year's allocation represented a 53% cut at a time when homeless cases and waiting lists were growing.

John Gillespie, the council's head of housing services, said: "At today's prices a new build council house would cost in excess of �100,000 to construct but without changes to Right to Buy legislation we could lose any new houses provided.

"The county needs additional funding to ensure that we can respond to local needs.

"That is why the recent announcement is such a disappointment. We have a practical business plan which commits the council to use its reserves to meet the Scottish Quality Housing Standard."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government denied Clackmannanshire had received �4.5m last year and said �1.3m of that money was for the Fife area.

She also said that the 2007 allocation was boosted by a one-off payment of �700,000 from the Housing Estate Regeneration Fund.

She added: "The Scottish Government is investing more that �1.5bn in housing over the next three years, �493m for 08/09, �566m for 09/10 and �591m for 10/11.

"This is 19% more than planned by the previous administration for the last spending review period.

"We have also proposed a national goal for house building of at least 35,000 homes per year across all tenures by the middle of the next decade."

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