The Highland Council are seeking local community feedback by way of a public housing survey that will help steer the new Local Housing Strategy (LHS) 2023-2028.

Housing and Property Committee Chair, Cllr Glynis Sinclair said: “Housing should reflect and meet the needs of communities across Highland and the survey offers a good opportunity for local people and communities to have a voice in shaping the new Highland Local Housing Strategy 2023-2028.

“The survey asks local people to share their views on the housing issues that matter most in their community and how they feel resources, investment and services should be targeted to tackle these challenges. The Highland Council fully supports the place-based approach, and I would encourage everyone to take the 5 minutes required to fill out the survey.”

The new Local Housing Strategy will set out how the Highland Council along with partners will deliver new affordable housing and housing services over the next 5 years (2023 to 2028).

The plan for addressing the housing challenges facing local communities include:

• Increasing the range of housing options to meet housing need
• Developing successful places which are connected to transport, services and jobs
• Tackling and reducing homelessness
• Improving housing affordability
• Supporting people with particular needs to live independently
• Improving the energy efficiency of homes and tackling climate change
• Improving the quality and condition of existing homes.

All Highland residents are urged to participate in the survey which should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. All survey responses will be for research purposes only and it will not be possible to identify individual households from the responses.

This is a good opportunity for local people and communities to have a voice in shaping the new Highland Local Housing Strategy.

The survey is open until 30 September 2022.