Housing Information & Advice FREE EVENT 11 July 2017

This year, Housing Options Scotland will be holding events all over the country to give housing information, advice and support to disabled people, older people, disabled veterans and those who support them.

One of these events will be held in Arbroath Community Centre on the 11^th July between 10am and 3pm. So people can come along, listen to the talks that will be repeated throughout the day, have a cup of tea and speak to the organisations gathered to get advice and information.

These drop in events will include talks on ownership, private renting and social renting. They will also include short talks from invited local and national organisations who work with disabled people and information stalls from carers organisations, disability organisations, advocacy organisations and many more.

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Angus Affordable Housing Supply – Government Funding

The Scottish Government recently announced funding for affordable housing up to 2020/21 for the Angus area.

This follows on from the previously announced funding levels for 2017/18.

Our funding for the next 4 years will be:

2017/18	£5.754m
2018-19	£7.511m
2019-20	£8.497m
2020-21	£9.066m

For more details see the Scottish Government website

The Council manages the Affordable Housing Supply Programme in Angus by working with the Scottish Government, Housing Associations and developers.

Our aim is to ensure a robust, long term programme to assist the Scottish Government to meet their target of building 50,000 affordable homes by 2021.

The recent announcement on subsidy levels provides the certainty needed to ensure these long-term objectives are met.

For affordable developments currently underway visit our Housing Development webpage.

 

New Council Houses at Friockheim

Councillors Craig Fotheringham and Lois Speed visited Eastgate, Friockheim on Monday to formally open our latest new affordable Council houses for rent.

The Eastgate housing development is on part of the site of the former Teachers’ Resource Centre, which is currently being converted into the new Friockhub community facility. The 3 new houses are already occupied and the new tenants are delighted with their new homes.

Communities Convener, Councillor Craig Fotheringham said: “We are committed to building new houses in towns and villages across Angus to support and sustain local communities. Our new houses are built to a very high specification, but at rents that are very affordable, and that’s especially important in the rural area where it could otherwise be hard for families to access high quality accommodation.”

The new development was part of the Council’s Strategic Housing Investment Plan 2015/16 – 2019/20 and was completed with grant funding from the Scottish Government as part of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme delivery plan.

Flat Safety in Angus

Important message from the Strategic Director – Place, Alan McKeown

In the wake of the catastrophic incident at Grenfell Tower in West London last week, we have conducted a comprehensive review of our domestic properties. The safety and security of our residents is always our top priority and we can assure the public that we constantly ensure our buildings meet the required standards and regulations. We also work continually with colleagues in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to review our fire safety and prevention measures.

There are no domestic buildings with a floor level above18m in Angus, either in the ownership of Angus Council or Registered Social Landlords. We have a number of five and four storey buildings. While several of these blocks have been over-clad in the last 20 years it is important to note that the external wall insulation systems that have been used are mechanically fixed directly to the existing non-combustible cement rendered building finish with no air gap. All of our over-cladded buildings were designed to comply with Scottish Building Regulations and have been subject to building warrant approval, detailed design and specifications showing compliance with regulations and an inspection regime. We also install sprinkler systems in all of our new-build houses.

While our initial assessments have provided us with assurances, our practice following any local or national incident is always to comprehensively review our arrangements and consider any improvements or actions needed. Officers from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service will be part of this review. They already have robust emergency response plans in place, with location specific plans for the five storey blocks and we will jointly assess any need to have these updated.

Please also see angus.gov for latest news

Arbroath Noran Avenue demolition phase

We have begun the demolition phase of the new housing development at Noran Avenue, Arbroath. Eight older, lower demand flats have now been demolished and will be replaced by four larger, high quality,energy efficient properties.

The new housing aims to complement the recent housing developments in the area ensuring that the area continues to be an attractive place to live whilst also providing housing that more meets the needs of those who require social housing in the area.

For more information on this development, and other affordable housing developments in Angus, please visit our Housing Development Webpage.