A record investment of over £70 million has been unveiled to help improve Fife’s council homes over the next year.

Councillors at a meeting of the council’s executive committee today (Tuesday) heard that almost every council home in Fife should be fully compliant with the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) by the end of this month.

Significant effort over the past few years has seen a wide range of improvements completed including providing new bathrooms, replacing windows and doors, and installing new central heating systems.

Maintenance work has been carried out to roofs and door entry systems, roughcast, heating and electrical systems. And, new kitchens and energy efficiency works have also been completed at the higher Fife standard.

Executive spokesperson for housing and building services, Cllr Judy Hamilton, is delighted that this significant target has been met by the council.

She said: “We invested over £37m last year to make this happen. The fact that our homes now meet the Scottish Quality Standard makes a real difference for our tenants.

“However we will keep improving the quality of our homes and therefore our investment programme continues.”

Over £33m will be spent on wider investment works next year including structural works to high rise and non-traditional properties, energy innovation, and building extensions to help with overcrowding and meet the needs of people with disabilities.

And work to make sure all council homes continue to be of the highest quality and meet new energy efficiency standards will mean £36m is spent on further improvements. It’s estimated that around 70 per cent of the council’s homes currently meet the new energy efficiency standards.

Cllr Hamilton added: “These improvements are funded from rent money raised from our tenants and it’s great that people can see how their money is being invested. We’re also in the process of building affordable housing in seven different locations across Fife - we’re now over halfway towards our target of building 2,700 new affordable homes by 2017.

“We’re proud of the progress being made here in Fife and we’ll work to make sure our tenants continue to enjoy warmer, drier, healthier homes they deserve for many years to come.”