The Highland Council in Scotland has come up with a new way to deal with the housing crisis that is affecting not only their country, but the whole of the UK. Due to the increase in the cost of living and the lack of wages, many people are now finding themselves homeless, which is why it is important for landlords to invest in landlord insurance in case they start experiencing problems with their tenants paying rent.
At the moment, those that find themselves homeless in the Highland Council’s area are placed into Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs), which is costing the government £2.6 million per year. In HMOs, tenants only have a single room of their own, and share the communal areas such as bathrooms and kitchens with other members of the household. The Highlands Council have decided to transfer the money they are currently spending on housing the homeless in HMOs and investing it in building new self-contained one-bedroom flats across the Highlands and Inverness and away from the city centre.
Discussing the new plan, Committee Chairman Councillor for The Finance Housing and Resources Committee, Dave Fallows said: “I am very pleased that we are progressing this radical new approach to accommodating people who find themselves temporarily homeless. It is a much better way of spending public funds with the advantage of providing purpose built accommodation which can at a later time be brought into our mainstream stock of Council homes.”
Housing Director Steve Barron also discussed the plans and said: “Recognition that the Council’s use of tendered rooms in Houses of Multiple Occupation is less attractive both for the tenants and for the Council leads to this proposal for an alternative response to the issue. This new approach would see the Council take its current expenditure on tendered rooms and invest this in building new self-contained one-bedroom flats in small developments across the Highlands.”
“These units would be built to the same standard as the general Council house new build programme. This would involve a kitchen/living room with separate bathroom and bedroom. They would be located among mainstream Council housing developments and indeed they would be suitable for use as mainstream Council housing should demand patterns change in the future.”