Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
PRESS RELEASE
27 September 2001
For Use: Immediately
|
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar PRESS RELEASE 27 September 2001 For Use: Immediately | |
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar's Director of Housing, Mr. Angus Lamont, has confirmed
that he has complete confidence in the figures produced by DTZ, the company
which carried out the Option Appraisal in the Western Isles for stock transfer.
Mr. Lamont said:
" Forward assumptions which DTZ have used have been quality assured and
we have no qualms about the validity of the projections being produced."
Option Appraisal was the process by which DTZ Pieda carried out an assessment of the pros and cons of transferring Council Housing stock into non-profit community housing organisations.
The Scottish Executive is promising to write off or service any outstanding housing debt that the Council has if stock is transferred although any decision to do so is dependent upon agreement from Council tenants.
The Comhairle owns almost 2000 homes and has a housing debt of £42 million,
about £21,000 per house.
For the Western Isles, DTZ produced figures showing that if stock was transferred
then rather than 75p for every pound of rent going to service debt, most of
this money could be released to spend on tenants' homes.
Ends
Issued by Nigel Scott
Communications Officer