The leader of Fife Council has said the region is in the midst of a “housing crisis”.
Alex Rowley told members of the local authority’s executive committee that the administration is making “good progress” in its effort to build thousands of new homes, but demand for affordable housing throughout Fife remains high.
Members were receiving an update from housing officers on Fife Council’s strategic housing investment programme (SHIP), which commits £87.4 million of council funds in a bid to build 2,700 homes over the next five years.
Although admitting that constructing such a large number of homes was “ambitious”, Councillor Rowley said it was a challenge his administration must take on.
“We have a housing crisis in Fife and we wouldn’t have set ambitious targets if we didn’t think we could achieve ambitious targets.
“We have set a target of 2,700 homes and we will do what we can to achieve that. We are making good progress but we will not take our foot off the accelerator.
“It is about talking to developers and pulling everything that we can together. Housing should be a basic human right and the homeless problems that we have show that we still have work to do.”
Around 12,000 people in Fife are currently on housing waiting lists, with a further 2,500 suffering, or threatened with, homelessness.
Of the 2,700-home target, the council has identified 2,306 of these which can be provided and work is ongoing to determine how the further 400 can be delivered.
Councillor David Ross, depute leader of the administration, added: “The council is already committing an additional £85 million to this housing programme and we have been making the case consistently to the Scottish Government for more funding for affordable housing.
“This is clearly the right thing to do. Building new affordable homes not only addresses the housing crisis but it saves money in many other ways, such as by improving health and reducing fuel poverty.
“It also creates much-needed jobs and apprentice places in the Fife economy.”