Councillor Judy Hamilton

The local authority has added an additional £150,000 this year to its Transfer Incentive Scheme, which is available to council tenants who want or need to move home and are living in properties that could be re-used to meet the needs of other households on the housing list.

The Transfer Incentive Scheme is a grant of up to £1,500 which can be used to;

• Provide resettlement assistance e.g. help with moving costs or other practical arrangement (such as decoration)
• To provide temporary rent exemption or rent assistance to allow a move to go ahead
• To improve the decoration standard of a current tenant to avoid re-charge costs etc

Councillor Judy Hamilton, said: “I am delighted to announce that Fife Council Housing Allocations will be moving today from urgent moves only, to mainstream allocations. This means we can increase housing options for a whole range of tenants.

“Lockdown has been a difficult time for the Housing Service and our tenants. The council has kept going with a low number of urgent housing allocations. It is now time to really get moving by offering council tenants the first opportunity for every empty property.

“By doing this, we can generate moves and more empty homes to help the housing list and homeless applicants. Although, it will take us some time to recover ground lost, I am pleased to see things getting back to as normal as we can get, in these strange and challenging times.

“I am also announcing today that we will boost the amount of resources available. I am delighted that we can add an additional £150,000 this year to the Transfer Incentive Scheme, to help tenants who want to downsize and move to a more suitable property.”