Five-year plan to build 1,000 new affordable homes in Renfrewshire gets green light

A financial plan setting out how more than 1,000 new affordable homes will be built in Renfrewshire by 2027 has been given the go-ahead by councillors.

Members of Renfrewshire’s Communities Housing and Planning Board this week approved the area’s latest Strategic Housing Investment Plan, which sets out where the council and its housing association partners plan to build in the next five years.

Renfrewshire is expected to receive more than £90m of grant support from the Scottish Government to help build affordable housing in that time and the SHIP sets out how that money will be used.

Some of the projects to be part-funded through the programme which are set to complete in 2022 or 2023, include:

– 101 new council homes in Ferguslie Park and 39 at Auchengreoch Road in Johnstone;

– 131 new homes in Glenburn in Paisley by Sanctuary Scotland and Paisley Housing Association for social rent and low-cost ownership;

– 58 social rented homes within Bishopton’s Dargavel Village by Loretto Housing Association

– the final phase work to bring the former Arnotts site in Paisley back into use, with Link Group building 81 new flats to add to those already built;

– the next phase of a long-term plan to transform Paisley’s west end, with Sanctuary Scotland building 22 new homes in Sutherland Street and 13 in Underwood Lane;

– a social housing development of 42 homes at Albert Road in Renfrew by Williamsbugh Housing Association;

The plan also includes a shadow programme of other planned projects which could be funded if others do not progress as expected.

The new homes will build on the success of recently-completed developments such as the council’s award-winning development of 95 new homes in Johnstone Castle and the 132 new homes built by Sanctuary Scotland on the site of St Mirren’s former Love Street stadium.

All new homes will be built to high energy-efficiency standards – to help residents save money on fuel bills and contribute to the area’s targets to tackle climate change.

Councillor Marie McGurk, convener of Renfrewshire Council’s Communities, Housing and Planning Policy Board, said: “We want Renfrewshire to continue to thrive as an attractive place for people to live and to move to.

“Key to that is making sure there is a supply of new housing people can afford, whether buying one, or as a tenant of the council or one of our housing association partners.

“This plan sets out how we will do that, while making sure there is a range of different size and type of house in each area, and which meets the different and changing needs of local people.

“It’s a really positive plan for the future of housing in Renfrewshire and I look forward to seeing the projects it contains develop over the years ahead.”