Highland Council recommend to approve new empty homes strategy
A strategy aiming to bring long-term empty houses back into use to help tackle the Highland housing challenge has been drawn up.
Councillors will decide whether to approve an updated empty homes strategy for the next three years at the housing and property committee meeting this week (November 5).
The plans detail two key objectives: to target resources at areas with a higher need for housing and to prioritise homes for key workers, re-population and area-based regeneration.
If approved, the plans could see enforcement measures come into place to reuse empty homes if an owner is unresponsive or unwilling to act but guidance for this is being reviewed by the Scottish Government and new legislation is anticipated.
The proposed strategy will continue to see a 200 per cent council tax premium for those exempt from discounts on their long-term empty properties to try and encourage them to be reused as homes.
The empty homes partnership was set up by the Scottish Government in 2010 and defines an empty home as either long-term empty properties, unoccupied properties or second homes but this does not include short-term lets.
Highland Council set up and funded their empty homes service in 2013 that used to be jointly funded by the Scottish Government.
In order to meet its goals, the council agreed to add in a new empty homes officer. They are still recruiting for the position and aim to have it filled by the end of the year.
Last year, 35 properties came back into use following help from the service, 18 of which became owner occupied, 11 turned into private lets and six became second homes or holiday lets.
According to the report, 61 per cent of the Highlands empty homes are in rural areas which means it has a higher amount of empty and second homes than the national average.
Figures from 2023 show the area with the highest number of long-term empty houses is Inverness (833) and the lowest is in Nairn (128).