West Lothian Social Housing to Benefit from £164m Investment
West Lothian Council has allocated £164 million for the creation, acquisition, and maintenance of social housing throughout the borough over the next five years.
The updated Housing Capital Investment Programme 2023/24 to 2027/28 will also seek to tackle and improve the internal environment of these homes.
Resources totalling £75.190m have been earmarked specifically for this undertaking over the course of the five-year programme.
This funding will enable an array of projects, including works combating dampness and ventilation, air quality improvements, kitchen and bathroom installations, windows and door replacements, installations to improve energy efficiency, and central heating upgrades.
In a visit to Burns Avenue in Armadale, executive councillor for housing, George Paul joined one of the council teams carrying out kitchen and bathroom upgrades.
He said: “Maintaining and enhancing our existing properties is of paramount importance and a great deal of resource is being invested over the next five years.
Work is well underway in a number of areas and I would like to thank staff for their continued effort to deliver the best possible homes for our tenants.
The investment will target general quality and energy efficiency
Over 5,500 improvements will be carried out across West Lothian Council’s portfolio of properties. These will include the aforementioned projects as well as external wall insulation upgrades, periodic electrical inspections, smoke and heat detection system renewals, and roof and render upgrades.
In undertaking such a catalogue of projects which seek to tackle an array of different issues, the council are demonstrating their commitment to meeting the increasing legislative standards relating to insulation and energy efficiency of housing stock, as well as meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS).
According to the council, the necessity to improve insulation and energy efficiency, can ‘create challenges relating to air quality and ventilation’ when ‘in tandem with modern day lifestyle’, hence their ambition to safeguard against these issues by specifically targeting both energy efficiency and air quality.
Meanwhile, upgrading kitchens, bathrooms, windows, and doors will enhance the overall quality of West Lothian’s social housing stock and help them to remain compliant with the SHQS.
And example of planned programme improvements and major elemental upgrade works due to take place across this year (2023/24) are as follows:
- Number of window and door replacements – 390 properties
- Number of central heating replacements – 616
- Number of properties set to benefit from external wall insulation upgrades- 84
- Number of new bathrooms to be installed – 200
- Number of new kitchens to be installed – 350
- Periodic Electrical Inspections – 2287
- Smoke and Heat detection – system renewals – 1400
- Number of major adaptation installations – 110
- Roof and Render – various areas – 201 properties being upgraded
