Dundee City Council's sheltered housing service could be set to be modernised to meet changes in demand for the homes.

In a report to the council's housing, Dundee Contract Services and environment services committee states that fewer people want to rent the 3,500 sheltered houses owned by the council, housing associations and the private sector in the city.

Convener, Councillor George Regan said: "The council is the largest provider of sheltered accommodation but community care policies mean that more people get support services to enable them to live in their own homes and this has led to a drop in demand for sheltered housing.

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"However, we are proud of our record in sheltered housing and we have every intention of still being the number one provider of it. We will be taking this further by reshaping our services to make them even more efficient and more responsive to people in the city through a better use of resources."

The report to committee states that over 75% of the council's sheltered housing is on the ground or first-floor of tenements with no lifts, some of the accommodation is in areas with an overall low housing demand and the size and quality of sheltered lounges varies so there are inconsistencies in the range of social activities provided.

It is proposed that once a sheltered property becomes empty and hard to let it could be transferred to the mainstream house lettings pool and then re-let, which would help reduce waiting lists. Where there was no mainstream waiting list demand, a property would be referred to the housing at risk working group.

Councillor Regan added: "I want to reassure our sheltered tenants that no one will be asked to move house because of the changes we are proposing. And re-lettings of former sheltered housing to mainstream tenants would be carried out very sensitively to take account of the ages of sheltered tenants."

(GK/JM)