A large scale housing improvement programme has been completed in East Ayrshire, it has been announced.

A total of 73 homes in Gatehead and 100 homes in Stewarton have been upgraded.

Working with the Energy Agency, funding from the Scottish Government was secured by the council.

The Housing Asset Services team could therefore carry out external insulation programmes on a much larger scale.

Funding was offered to private home owners which meant that improvements could be carried out on whole streets when the Council’s housing improvement and energy efficiency programmes were already underway.

In the Housing Improvement Programme (HIP), energy efficiency features prominently.

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A total of £5.49m is to be spent on external wall insulation and render works this year.

Overall, 640 council homes are to be upgraded with thermal efficiency measures and finished with a smart render.

In Gatehead, 40 private houses and 33 council houses are in the process of being completely rejuvenated while in Stewarton, 37 private homes and 63 council houses on Lothian Road have benefitted from external wall insulation and new render.

Council Leader Douglas Reid said: "For a number of years now the Council has been successful in bidding for funding to carry out improvement works to Weir and Swedish timber homes across East Ayrshire.

"The results have been so dramatic that I committed a further £150,000 to the programme in the 2015/16 Budget. This funding has targeted homes in areas that can be fuel poor and it is fantastic to view homes that have benefitted from this improvement programme and talk to homeowners and tenants who are seeing a difference in their energy bills."

Councillor MacColl added: "Timber homes, due to their timber framed construction, are notoriously difficult to heat and cannot be insulated using traditional low cost insulation like cavity wall insulation.

"This programme has been genuinely life changing for people who see a huge difference in their energy bills."

(LM/MH)