Stirling Council is to purchase 36 affordable homes at South Stirling Gateway, after a committee approved the procurement process.
Persimmon Homes will build the properties as part of phase one of its Brucefields housing development near Bannockburn.
Designs include cottage flats, houses and bungalows, all with between two and four bedrooms.
The majority are to be two or three-bed houses.
Once in place, the 36 council-owned homes will be made available for social rent.
According to Stirling Council, 1,143 households are currently waiting to be rehoused in the Bannockburn area, while a further 224 homeless households are also waiting for housing there.
Scottish Government to provide £3.6m
It has been agreed that the affordable homes will be bought from Persimmon Homes for a price of £7.176 million.
The properties themselves will cost £6.524m – around £181,222 per home.
Stirling Council has allowed an additional £652,000 to cover any extra specifications that might be required during building.
The council will fund the net cost from its new build budget, with the remainder coming from the Scottish Government.
It is expected the government will provide at least £3.6m towards the development.
Persimmon Homes originally planned to build 25 affordable homes on the site, but the developer has increased the number to 36.
This ensures that 25% of all properties constructed are made available for social rent, as per its legal obligations.
Concerns over ‘demarcation of social housing’
The procurement was approved during a meeting of Stirling Council’s Community Wellbeing and Housing Committee on Thursday, May 22.
During the meeting, Conservative Stirling North councillor Rachel Nunn said there had previously been “lively discussion” over the development.
She asked council officers present to confirm that the council-owned properties built would look the same as those put up for private sale, to avoid “a clear demarcation of social housing”.
Other councillors at the meeting shared her concern.
“The finishing will be very similar,” one officer told Ms Nunn.
The councillor also stressed her concerns around all 36 affordable homes being sited close together, rather than dotted among the private properties.
However, a council officer said he was “not concerned about that clustering”, because the number of council-owned properties would be relatively small within a development of around 130 homes.
He added that grouping the social rent homes together was easier for management purposes.
A total of 800 new homes are planned for South Stirling Gateway, as well as new shops and food outlets, a primary school, a park and ride, and a golf facility.
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