Housing projects in Angus will benefit from more than £400,000 in funding from the Scottish Government, it has been announced.
Three Angus projects are among the recipients of a new £4 million fund to bring empty properties back into use as affordable housing.
The Town Centre Empty Homes Fund will provide grant and loan funding worth £253,000 for Glengate Hall in Kirriemuir, £52,000 for a refurbishment project in Arbroath’s Keptie Street and £120,000 for Angus Empty Homes.
Angus Council housing spokesman Donald Morrison said the money is helping bring 24 homes into circulation.
The first tenants moved into the 19th Century Glengate flats in Kirriemuir last summer, following years of dereliction.
Company managing director Lorna Redford said it had been a “phenomenal” project, utilising local skills wherever possible.
The fund will help increase the supply of housing in Scotland’s urban and rural towns.
It will open for new bids shortly, offering funding to regenerate both homes which have been lying empty for long periods of time and to convert empty commercial spaces into residential accommodation.
Properties will then be available for affordable rent or sale.
It comes on top of the work of the Shelter Scotland-managed Empty Homes Partnership, which recently had its funding doubled and received a three-year extension to help bring more private sector empty homes back into use.
Housing minister Margaret Burgess announced details of the new fund at the Shelter Scotland Homelessness Conference.
She said: “It makes absolutely no sense for us to have more than 30,000 homes lying empty when homelessness still exists in Scotland.
“Empty shops and flats can be an eyesore in our communities, devaluing our properties and even encouraging anti-social behaviour.
“Bringing these empty properties back into use is a cost-effective way of increasing the supply of housing available to families across Scotland and it also aids community regeneration.
“By transforming derelict shops and flats into new homes, we will be able to inject some life back into our town centres and make them attractive places to live and work.”
The Town Centre Empty Homes Fund is a mix of £2m grant and £2m loan funding and aims to target “problem” empty homes and conversion of empty commercial space into residential properties.
A council spokeswoman said: “We’ve welcomed the availability of loans from the Scottish Government, which has part funded each project and which has helped to provide valuable additional affordable housing opportunities for both current and future generations to rent across Angus.
“Empty properties have been brought back into use as a result, making better use of our built environment and protecting some important listed buildings which would otherwise be vulnerable to decay.”
Photo by Angus Pictures