The Local Housing Strategy (LHS) is the overarching strategy for housing in East Ayrshire and incorporates previous strategies in relation to homelessness, housing support and fuel poverty.
This LHS is underpinned by the East Ayrshire Housing Needs and Demand Assessment (HNDA) (PDF 3.2Mb) which is a comprehensive assessment of housing need across East Ayrshire. The HNDA was overseen by a multi-agency steering group and confirmed as “robust and credible” by the Scottish Government’s Centre for Housing Market Analysis on 18 April 2018.
The East Ayrshire Local Housing Strategy 2019-2024 (PDF 1.2Mb) was submitted to the Scottish Government for a peer review and feedback was received from the Scottish Government Policy Teams, the Housing Area Team and colleagues from Argyll and Bute Council. It was approved by full Council on 20 November 2019.
The strategy covers both rented and owned housing, and identifies the current challenges and priorities for future activity in the following areas:
- affordability and balanced housing markets
- housing quality, energy efficiency and fuel poverty
- access, information and advice and support
- homelessness
- vibrant communities
The LHS is structured around the delivery of its vision:
Working together to ensure that everyone in East Ayrshire has access to good quality, energy efficient housing, within safe, healthy and vibrant communities.
Four core outcomes have been developed to support delivery of this vision:
- East Ayrshire has a supply of good quality affordable housing across all tenures based within vibrant empowered communities.
- People in East Ayrshire have access to a person centred housing options service and where possible, homelessness is prevented.
- People in East Ayrshire are able to live independently in suitable accommodation or with appropriate support.
- People in East Ayrshire live in high quality, energy efficient homes and fuel poverty is minimised.
Each of the four outcomes includes a set of actions and accompanying indicators and timescales that will be used to measure our success in achieving these outcomes.
The housing contribution statement (PDF 813Kb) links the strategic aims of both housing services and the health and social care partnership.
An equality impact assessment (PDF 214Kb) has been completed as part of the strategy development process.