Over £80m is to be spent in improving council housing in Dundee over the next five years.

Dundee City Council has announced the funding, adding that most of it will be spent on improving fuel efficiency.

Jimmy Black, convener of Dundee City Council’s housing committee said: "Against a backdrop of steeply rising power costs and changes in the welfare benefits system, our tenants have told us they want increased energy efficiency measures because these improvements will save them money on their fuel bills and create warm comfortable homes for them to live in.

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"We want to provide better housing for people in Dundee and are working towards all our houses meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) by 2015.

"A big part of the SHQS is about greater energy efficiency, more efficient heating systems, insulation and special district heating schemes, all of which are designed to save tenants money and make their homes more comfortable. To do this we plan to continue our programme of invest in improvements to buildings."

The Council says more than half of its housing stock already meets the standard, with the target for April next year being to bring that figure up to almost three quarters.

From 2015 the Council will introduce a new council house-building programme to be funded by rental income, house sales and prudential borrowing.

Dundee City Council’s policy and resources committee will consider the plan on Monday 28 January.

Cllr Black added: "Our tenants all over the city have already seen improvements to their homes and this capital investment means that almost 5000 more will benefit from this money being invested over the next five years."

(IT)