Hundreds of homes will be built in Glasgow after a record budget for new affordable housing projects was confirmed by the council.
Last year’s housing plans were hit by the pandemic, which forced building sites to shut down, but Glasgow received its ‘highest ever’ budget for 2021/22, getting £120m.
And the council is set to get £538m between 2021 and 2026, with the city’s housing convener welcoming the budget.
Cllr Kenny McLean told councillors: “I’m pleased to report that the Scottish Government issued the council with resource planning assumptions covering the next four years.
“This is something myself and officers of the council have been in discussion with the Scottish Government about and we are very pleased we have the certainty of the commitment of this funding for that period.”
It is hoped the budget will help the city to recover from the Covid pandemic after last year’s programme was badly impacted by site closures, restrictions, such as social distancing, and material shortages.
There are 35 affordable housing projects already legally committed, which are set to deliver more than 2000 homes. Councillors have now approved 23 more schemes, with over 750 homes planned.
These include 91 homes from Govan Housing Association at Water Row and 129 homes from Link in Dalmarnock.
There will also be 90 homes from the West of Scotland Housing Association at Dundashill and 48 from Queens Cross Housing Association at Burnbank Gardens.
There was an allocation of £110m last year, which had been expected to deliver 1439 completed homes. It was reduced to £80m last August, with a target of 708 completions.
But only 397 homes could be finished and 311 slipped into this financial year. Targets for approved schemes and site starts did exceed targets and an extra £5m was requested from the Scottish Government, bringing total spending for the year to £85m.
A council report confirmed the £120m for 2021/22 is the “highest amount the council has ever received” and was boosted by one-off Covid recovery funding from the UK Government.
The full list of new projects for 2021/22 can be viewed here.
