Its housing team generated £18.8m in benefits for tenants and the council has built 460 new affordable homes, marking the council’s best yearly performance to date.  

These figures are just some of the highlights in the council’s Local Housing Strategy (LHS) annual performance update for 2023/24, which were highlighted at its recent Housing Committee.

The five-year housing plan details the council’s ambition to transform and regenerate communities, reduce inequality and disadvantage and create opportunities for people across the area. It covers areas including housing delivery, homelessness, property condition, energy efficiency, fuel poverty, health and wellbeing and older people’s and specialist housing.

Yearly achievements include:

• Building 460 new affordable homes. The council’s best performance to date in delivering homes that are energy efficient, accessible and future-proofed for generations to come.
• 44 wheelchair liveable homes delivered.
• A reduction of 15% in proportion of households with children in temporary accommodation compared with a 5% increase nationally.
• 91.1% of new tenancies sustained for more than a year. Helping more tenants remain in their homes.
• Investment of more than £29m to improve the quality of its homes in the past year, including £13.6m on roof and render, £5.7m on heating upgrades, £3.6 on renewable energies, £4.7m on kitchens and bathrooms, and £1.6m on home safety and security.
• Over 6,000 energy efficiency measures installed including external wall insulation, triple glazed windows, energy-efficient heating and solar panels.
• Phase 1 of the re-provisioning programme is nearing completion with 1,246 properties being demolished/in process of being demolished in 2023/24, and
• By November 2024, the council concluded the purchase of 44 properties from private landlords with sitting tenants to prevent homelessness as part of the expansion of the Open Market Purchase Scheme.

Housing convener, Councillor Michael McPake, said: “Our action plan contains over 150 separate milestones ranging from building new homes and investing in our current housing stock, to tackling fuel poverty by delivering energy efficiency measures and providing financial support.

“I’m pleased with the excellent progress being made to increase social housing across our area, the investment and improvements made to our housing stock and the range of support in place for our tenants. Our actions support our vision to improve housing, regenerate communities and enhance the lives of our tenants by making North Lanarkshire the place to live.”