The official opening of a completed development of North Lanarkshire Council homes has taken place at Barrie Place in Kilsyth.

A plaque was unveiled at the site which is now home to 30 new, modern, council properties, comprising a mix of cottage flats, amenity and family homes. This is just one of the modern new developments the council is delivering across North Lanarkshire as part of its NL Homes programme.

Depute Provost, Councillor Jean Jones, officially opened the site and was joined by local members, Councillors Heather McVey and Alan Stevenson. Tenants and housing staff also came along to mark the opening.

Councillor Jones said: “It’s always a pleasure to attend official openings and to see for myself how tenants are settling in and to spend some time listening to their experiences of living in a new build.

“Our new build programme - NL Homes - supports our vision to provide affordable, good quality homes within safe and sustainable communities for the people of North Lanarkshire, and I’m very proud that we have been able to commit investment in new and improved housing while managing to keep rents well below the Scottish local authority average.

“I look forward to further progress being made on sites across North Lanarkshire and I’m confident we’ll continue to deliver on our pledge to build more modern affordable homes for North Lanarkshire’s residents and benefit communities across the area.”

The latest phase of the council’s NL Homes programme adds to its growing stock of new council houses and marks another step to meeting our ambitious plans to build more than 2,000 new homes – one of the biggest council house building programmes in Scotland in a generation.

All of the new homes are built with energy efficiency in mind, achieving at least a ‘good’ eco rating to help minimise running costs for tenants. In addition, they meet Housing for Varying Needs specification which means homes are more accessible to adapt to tenants’ mobility needs. The homes are also ‘Secured by Design’ accredited, which involves Police Scotland architectural liaison officers having input into the layout and designs to ensure we build safe and secure environments

The £4.7 million development was managed by contractor Wates Living. A contribution is received from the Scottish Government towards the development costs at each site.