Around 12,830 homes in the Highlands will be able to remain within social rented housing stock until at least 2020 due to a 5-year extension of the Highland’s pressured area designation status.

Tenants with a modernised right to buy entitlement living in communities covered by the pressured area designation will have their right to buy suspended for the maximum period of the 10 year designation.

In October 2010, Highland was awarded pressured area designation status by the Scottish Government for a maximum of 5 years. In June 2011 changes to The Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 enabled a maximum period of pressured area designation to be extended from 5 to 10 years.

Members of The Highland Council’s, Housing and Social Work Committee have been informed of the results of a consultation with over 155 bodies and individuals on the proposed extension of pressured area designation. The majority of respondents were in favour of the proposal.

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Committee agreed to extend Highland’s pressured area designation to the new maximum of 10 years to October 2020.

This decision affects around 12,000 Council owned properties (89% of the Council’s housing stock) and around 830 housing association properties.

The vast majority of Highland’s communties are covered by pressured area designation. The only area where this suspension doesn’t apply is Caithness, where only Thurso and its neighbouring communities of Forss, Geise, Glengolly, Janetstown, Scrabster and Weydale are covered by the pressured area designation.

Suspension of right to buy due to pressured area status only affects tenants with modernised right to buy entitlements (i.e. those who started a tenancy between 30 September 2002 and 1 March 2011). Tenants with the preserved (old) right to buy living in communities covered by pressured area status can still buy their homes.

Recent legal changes means that from the 1 March 2011, first time tenants, including those who have taken a voluntary break, and tenants of the new build council houses will not be given the Right to Buy (RTB). Whether a tenant has the right to buy now depends on the particular circumstances of their tenancy, including when it started, where they live and the kind of property they live in.

(GK)