Get a LIFT onto the property ladder

If you are a tenant of a Council or Housing Association property, you could be eligible for up to 40% towards the price of a property through the Scottish Government’s LIFT (Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers) Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) scheme.

How does the scheme work? 

The Scottish Government pays between 10% and 40% towards the price of a property you have chosen on the open market.

Example: the property is worth £100,000 and you can afford to contribute £70,000 (through mortgage/ deposit). The Scottish Government could contribute 30% (£30,000). When the property’s sold, 30% of the sale price would be returned to the Scottish Government.

You own the property outright and can increase your equity share over time.

Can I apply? 

Current tenants of Council or Housing Associations can apply to the scheme, even if not a first-time buyer. Visit Link Housing website for a full list of eligible groups.

What property can I buy?

The property must be:

• Advertised for sale publicly e.g. on an Estate Agent’s website.
• The correct size for your household.

Priced within the maximum threshold for the area. Angus thresholds:

 

 

 

An apartment is a habitable room including; bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms and box rooms. Kitchens, bathrooms and conservatories are not classed as apartments.

How to apply?

Visit Link Housing website to find out more and apply online.

 

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Our Housing Performance Report 2018 – 19

We have produced a Report Card which lets you know how our Housing services performed last year against the standards set by the Scottish Housing Regulator in the Scottish Social Housing Charter.

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The Report Card was prepared after consultation with our Tenants Steering Group to ensure we have reported the performance our tenants think is most important.

The Report Card is available on the our website now.

Hard Work of Tenants and Staff on the Tenant Participation Strategy Recognised at a Celebratory Event in Arbroath

Tenants and staff were thanked for their hard work in preparing the new Tenant and Community Engagement Strategy 2019 – 2022 at an event recently held at Dundee and Angus College in Arbroath. The new strategy will set out the vision and action plan for tenant involvement and engagement for the next three years.

The event was chaired by John Morrow, Housing Service Leader, and Angela Quirie, Housing Policy Officer, gave a presentation detailing how the strategy was developed.

The strategy will be formally launched at an event at a later date.

Kitchen Replacement Programme

We are continuing our Kitchen Replacement Programme across our housing stock and working closely with our main contractor MPS Housing Ltd.

MPS Housing Ltd are holding drop-in sessions to give you an opportunity to meet the team, see the products and ask any questions you may have.

Details of this event are below –

Where? – Montrose Road Centre, Montrose Road, Forfar

When? – Wednesday 2 October 2019

Times – 12.45pm to 2.45pm and 4pm to 6pm

 

 

Even if you have not been notified of a kitchen replacement in your area please feel free to come along and see what will be available to you in the future.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Rent Rise Consultation – Last Few Days!

Calling all Council tenants! The consultation on the rent rise for 2020/21 only runs until Monday 30 September, so you’ve still got time to register your vote.

To vote, click on the survey link and choose one of the 3 options.

Rent Rise Vote Now Open – Have Your Say!*

Are you an Angus Council tenant? We need your views on what the rent increase should be in 2020/21 and how your rent money should be spent.

The three options outlined below will continue to keep your rent amongst the lowest in Scotland.

Why are we proposing to increase the rent? 

We need to make sure the rent money we receive is enough to pay for existing services, such as repairs, but also to pay for larger improvements needed for tenants’ homes and to help build new homes.

Rent increases allow us to invest in our homes to continue to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. and to meet the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing by 2020.

The rent rise is partly based on the inflation measure of CPI (Consumer Price Index), as well as an additional set percentage of 1% which has been agreed between us and the Tenant Rent Setting Group. CPI+1% is the minimum rent increase required to allow us to deliver our current plans and manage inflationary cost rises. We need to increase the rent at least by inflation because that’s what it costs us to deliver existing services. If we were to increase by more than 1% we could also increase investment in tenant homes.

How we decide on the Increase

We’re carrying out a consultation to help tenants consider the rent increase options and clearly see how the rent money will be spent.

The results of this survey will be presented at the Communities Committee in February 2020, where the final decision on a rent increase for 2020/21 will be made.

Rent Increase – the options

The Tenant Rent Setting Group has agreed three options which the members feel will bring benefits to tenants while keeping rents affordable.

The three options are:

 

	Option 1 – Recommended by the Rent Setting Group	Option 2	Option 3
Rent Level	3.1%	3.2%	3.3%
Capital spend (this is money invested to buy or upgrade fixed, physical, non-consumable assets, such as buildings and equipment)	£18 million capital spend over the year	Additional £340,000 capital to spend in addition to Option 1	Additional £680,000 capital to spend in addition to Option 1
How many new builds?	70 new homes over the year	70 new homes – any additional funds will be used to improve existing stock	70 new homes – any additional funds will be used to improve existing stock
What stock improvements can tenants expect?	450 Gas & Electric Heating installations; 600 properties receiving external wall insulation & energy efficiency measures; 700 bathrooms.	In addition to planned improvements listed in Option 1, for example: 20 Gas Heating installation (including loft insulation); 20 Electric Heating installations (including loft insulation); 10 External Wall Insulation; 11 Window & Door Replacements.	In addition to planned improvements listed in Option 1, for example: 40 Gas Heating installation (including loft insulation); 40 Electric Heating installations (including loft insulation); 20 External Wall Insulation; 22 Window & Door Replacements.

The tenant representatives recommend that tenants choose Option 1 (the lowest option), which would mean a rent rise of 3.1 %. This option is the minimum rise needed to deliver the current Business Plan. It, along with Scottish Government grant funding, would enable us to build 70 new homes in 2020-21, as well as these improvements to existing stock: 450 Gas & Electric Heating installations, 600 properties receiving external wall insulation & energy efficiency measures, 700 bathrooms.

The graph below shows the average weekly rents of Angus Council over the past five years compared to other neighbouring local authorities (figures from the Scottish Housing Regulator).

How a rent increase of 3.1% would affect average Angus Council weekly rents

	Average weekly rent 2018/19	Average weekly rent 2019/20	Average weekly rent 2020/21
Bedsit	£53.25	£55.11	£56.82
1 Bedroom	£61.79	£63.95	£65.94
2 Bedrooms	£69.48	£71.91	£74.14
3 Bedrooms	£78.56	£81.31	£83.83
4+ bedrooms	£96.60	£99.98	£103.08
Angus Average	£67.99	£70.37	£72.55

 

To have your say on the rent options,

please complete the survey online by 30 September*.

*Please note this consultation is open to current Angus Council tenants only

 

Bathroom Replacement Programme Update

Our bathroom replacement programme has now begun. It is a 7 year contract to replace around 6500 Council bathrooms, in more than 80% of our housing stock, and the contractor is MPS Housing Ltd. 

The first replacements are taking place in the Brechin and Montrose areas, and this first phase will take 2 – 3 years. Arbroath, Carnoustie and Monifieth areas will take up the next 2 years of the contract, and the Forfar and Kirriemuir areas will follow that.

Tenants will receive a letter from us when work is due to start in their area.

 

New Build Affordable Housing Target Met

We can confirm that we have met our 2018/19 target for new build affordable homes, with 33 Council and 95 Housing Association properties delivered through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme!

The Scottish Government allocates money each year to part fund affordable housing projects to help achieve their target of 50,000 new supply affordable homes over the lifetime of the parliament.  If councils don’t spend their allocated funds, it goes back into a ring-fenced housing fund.

For the second year running our Angus programme was able to claim more than its allocated funding, due to slippage elsewhere.

This year over £8m of grant money was claimed which is a substantial increase from previous years.

To find out what affordable housing is happening in your area, check out our Housing Development pages.

Academy Court Awarded Best Group Housing by the DIA

Our acclaimed affordable housing development at Academy Court in Forfar picked up its first award last night at the Dundee Institute of Architects annual recognition of the best new architecture and design in Tayside. The renewal of the old school buildings into fresh and vibrant new Council homes for rent was voted best group housing project.

The scheme has also been short listed for a number of other awards. Perhaps more importantly though, the new homes have been given huge approval by the community for whom the buildings play such an important role in the social fabric of Forfar.

See our previous post for other awards which could come Academy Court’s way.

Delivering New Affordable Housing in Angus

Our ambitious Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) was approved by Councillors this week. It plans to deliver more than 600 new affordable homes in Angus by March 2024. This will be delivered in partnership with our housing association partners to provide affordable homes for social rent across Angus. The investment plan has been submitted to the Scottish Government for approval.

The plans set out how best to use over £44 million from the Affordable Housing Supply Programme for building affordable homes in Angus to meet housing need and create places that people can be proud to call home.

Communities Convener, Cllr Mark Salmond said:

This is an ambitious investment plan, but one that with our housing partners, we are committed to delivering upon. Everyone should have access to good quality, affordable housing and a place to call home. This investment will help us deliver that as well as support plans, also approved by the Council today, to ensure people who experience homelessness can access settled housing as quickly as possible.

We want people and families to feel that where they live provides much more than just a roof over their heads. We are committed to delivering good quality, safe, secure, sustainable and affordable housing within environments that meet people’s needs. That includes adapted, specialist and supported housing.

This announcement is also great news for the construction sector in Angus, bringing the certainty that comes from knowing there will be continued investment in house-building from the Council and our housing association partners.