New legislation is being introduced by the Scottish Government on 1 April 2010 which changes the way private home owners will receive assistance from Local Authorities.
The Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 replaces the old grant scheme with a Scheme of Assistance, a major part of which re-emphasises that the responsibility to maintain, repair or improve a house lies with the owner.
The Act also changes a local authority’s role to ensure that more advice and practical assistance will be available to help home owners to carry out the necessary works.
The new Scheme will require people to demonstrate that they cannot afford to carry out some or all of the works themselves before any financial assistance will be considered.
Whilst a number of mainland authorities have decided not to offer any financial assistance towards such works Western Isles Council has identified that a strong need remains in the islands, due to the condition of the housing stock, relatively low equity in house values and lower incomes all of which reduce an owner’s ability to borrow to fund the repairs.
Some people will however, find that because the cost of works is low, or their income allows them to borrow sufficient funding to pay for the works, that there will be no financial assistance available.
In these circumstances, advice and practical assistance will be offered by the Comhairle to help people get the works carried out.
Councillor Norman A Macdonald, Chair of Environment and Protective Services Committee said
The Comhairle has always understood the strong need to improve the condition of its private sector housing stock and it wishes to continue to provide support wherever this is possible. It has therefore been a difficult task to create a Scheme of Assistance which meets the needs of the house owners in the islands whilst still complying with the new legislation. I believe that we have come up with a Scheme which should still allow necessary works to be carried out and target the available resources where they are needed the most.
The introduction of the Scheme of Assistance does not however change the eligibility for grant where works are required to adapt a disabled person’s home to meet their particular needs.
In these cases Adaptation Grants are still available to enable these works to be carried out.
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