Major improvements in the way council houses are let in Dundee has led to the city dramatically reducing the length of time they are empty between tenants.

Councillors will be told on Monday that as of July this year popular houses were empty for only 57 days, with less popular homes taking 67 days to re-let.

Jimmy Black, convener of Dundee City Council's housing committee said: "The report up to March this year shows a year on year improvement with less popular homes taking 109 days to re-let and those more in demand taking 98.

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"These dramatic improvements show that the changes we have made to the whole process of letting houses as well as the work that Dundee Contract Services has been doing preparing them for new tenants are beginning to bear fruit.

"The latest figures are based on an average and show that we are now bettering the targets laid down by the Scottish Government for less popular houses and working steadily towards achieving the same thing with homes that are in greater demand."

The housing department's annual service plan review, which will be before the housing committee next week, also shows progress towards achieving other quality standards, including 35.7% of council houses now meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, against a target of 36%; and 715 families registered to receive 20% fuel discount, against a target of 500.

The target of 10 days for homeless people staying in bed and breakfast accommodation has been bettered by a factor of five, with the average stay now only two days in Dundee.

(GK)