Malcolm Chisholm, the Executive’s Communities Minister, has agreed to a request from Highland Council for the suspension under the “pressured-area” clause contained in the 2001 Housing (Scotland) Act which allows councils facing local housing strains to retain homes for affordable rent for people on low incomes. The designation applies throughout Badenoch and Strathspey, Skye and Lochalsh and Nairn, and across much of Inverness, Fort William, Lochaber, Easter Ross and Wester Ross. No areas in Caithness or Sutherland are affected.

It is thought that the ministerial approval of the request for pressured-area status may prevent 570 potential sales of council houses, based on past trends, with an overall total of 2,039 tenancies being affected. In Highland Council’s area, 80 per cent of homes are in the private sector, with just 20 per cent — just over 14,400 — in the public sector.

The move to slow down council house sales in the Highlands is only the second in Scotland but by far the largest one so far. The first pressured-area designation, also for five years, was granted last month to East Renfrewshire Council for Eastwood, but this affected only about 20 potential buyers.

Margaret Davidson, Highland Council’s housing convener, said the move was driven by a severe shortage of affordable housing in many areas. Although more housing association homes were being built, there were not nearly enough to replace council housing sold through the right to buy.

“Communities have consistently told us that tackling this shortage should be one of our highest priorities,” she said. “We are working hard with our housing partners to build new, affordable homes across the Highlands, but the challenge is enormous so I welcome this decision by the Scottish Executive.”

Gavin Corbett, the spokesman for Shelter Scotland, said: “This proactive move by Highland Council means it can begin to tackle the problem of a lack of affordable housing in its area — an issue they have been raising publicly over recent months.”

He said research by Shelter in the summer showed that 82 per cent of councillors in Scotland wanted to see a serious overhaul of the right-to-buy policy. Mr Corbett said: “The policy in Scotland continues to drain housing stock of around 11,000 homes a year, with over 440,000 lost in the 25 years since it was introduced.”

The right-to-buy legislation in Scotland changed significantly with the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, which reduced and capped discount levels, extended the qualifying period to five years and introduced the pressured-area clause. The legislation also requires Scottish ministers, who have been coming under pressure from sections of the social housing lobby to scrap or significantly amend the right to buy in Scotland, to report to Parliament on its effect by September 30 next year.

Mr Chisholm said last night that the pressured-area mechanism was one of a number of tools available to local authorities to address any affordable housing issues within their own areas. “Housing pressures vary across Scotland and it is up to individual councils to consider whether it is appropriate to apply,” the minister said. “Highland Council presented a convincing case in support of their application. There is compelling evidence of substantial pressures on affordable housing in the areas they identified.”

Mr Chisholm pointed out that the Executive was investing a record £97 million this year to provide good-quality, affordable housing across rural Scotland. “This designation does not signal any change in our right-to-buy policy. The pressured-area mechanism has been available to local authorities for four years,” he said.

This week, ministers and community leaders hailed a new £20 million affordable housing development in Skye. Initial site work is taking place at the Home Farm development in Portree this week, marking the start of the biggest housing programme on the island. Of the 246 new homes, 113 will be available for low-cost rent, 56 to buy through a shared equity scheme that helps those on low income and 77 will be put up for private sale.

The land for the development was secured with £4.5 million from Communities Scotland, the housing and regeneration agency, and more than £400,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise community land unit. On Monday, The Times reported that more than 60 homes built without planning permission on a remote estate in Argyll could be bulldozed. The local authority has served the first of the residents with an enforcement notice ordering them to pull down their dwelling built four years ago.

However, the local landowner, motivated by a desire to provide affordable housing for local people, has turned a blind eye to the development. An influx of wealthy retired couples and second home-owners into the Craignish peninsula area has inflated house prices by almost 30 per cent in a year, putting them beyond the reach of local people.

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