Further tenants' rights restrictions in Fife

Pressure on council housing leads to second designation

News, 16 January 2007

Tenants' rights to buy their council houses have been suspended in parts of Fife after Ministers accepted that further areas in the region should be designated as "pressured".

The newly designated areas cover the villages of Aberdour, Charlestown, Crossford, Culross, Dalgety Bay, Halbeath, Kingseat, Limekilns, North Queensferry, Rosyth, Saline, Torryburn, and Townhill. Tenants within these areas whose tenancies have begun since 30 September 2002 will have the Right to Buy their rented council or housing association house suspended for five years.

Last year ministers approved an application from Fife Council to designate areas of St Andrews and the East Neuk as having substantial pressures on affordable housing. Other areas currently designated include parts of Highland, South Ayrshire, Moray, East Renfrewshire and Dumfries and Galloway. An application from Perth and Kinross Council is currently being considered.

Deputy Communities Minister Des McNulty said that the designation did not signal any change in the "right to buy" policy. The series of applications showed, he said, "that local authorities are looking carefully at affordable housing in their own areas and deciding that the pressured area option can help them".

Pressured area designation helps councils to continue to offer homes for affordable rent to people on low incomes in areas where the right to buy could otherwise lead to serious shortages.