Efforts to encourage council house tenants in Moray to downsize are finally paying off after the budget for a cash incentive scheme was fully spent.
The council has been trying to persuade households with empty bedrooms to move to smaller properties for several years to free up family homes and reduce the waiting list.
A cash incentive of £1,900, in addition to an extra £400 for every bedroom freed up, was unveiled to entice residents to move to smaller properties.
But last year, less than half the annual £72,000 budget, which has a target of 25 households, was spent.
However, it has now been revealed that all of the money for 2018-19 was distributed to help reduce waiting lists for council homes.
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Yesterday, Louise Laing, chairwoman of the authority’s communities committee, explained that the appointment of a member of staff to promote the scheme had produced positive results.
She said: “They have other duties, but the downsizing incentive is one of their priorities, which has been a big help.
“Another thing that has helped this year is that there has been quite a lot of new one and two-bedroom homes built.
“It has proved a lot more attractive for people to move to a nice shiny new house than it might otherwise have been. It’s important because we want to free up those three-bedroom family homes.”
Mrs Laing explained that no decision had been made about whether to increase the budget, but confirmed it was currently under consideration.
Moray Council has about 3,500 applications on the waiting list for a new home in the region – despite creating about 500 new tenancies every year.
A study carried out by the authority estimated that there were empty bedrooms in about 400 of its properties.
The council has set a target of building 70 new houses every year in the next three years to try and reduce the backlog with 231 properties due to be constructed before 2021 – but has admitted it cannot build enough to meet the demand from the waiting list.
Keith and Cullen councillor Donald Gatt praised efforts by council staff during yesterday’s communities committee meeting to ensure all of the available downsizing money was spent.
Graeme Davidson, the council’s housing strategy and development manager, said: “The incentive will continue next year and we are looking at additional resources for it.
“It’s a high priority to deliver it.”