North Ayrshire Council has suspended Right to Buy in areas of the authority in a bid to stave off shortages of affordable housing.

'Pressured area' status has been applied to 11 letting areas following permission from Ministers. This will allow the council to retain housing stock to use as homes for rent to people on low incomes in areas facing shortages.

Right to Buy is blamed for exacerbating housing pressures in these areas. Over 1,200 tenancies in North Ayrshire will be affected.

Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell said: "North Ayrshire Council requested the suspension of Right to Buy to ease the substantial pressures facing affordable housing in the area.

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"It is the ninth council to have successfully applied to use the pressured area mechanism and I would ask other councils to consider whether it could be used as a suitable response to particular pressures within their areas."

He said the Scottish Government wishes to explore ways of achieving greater local flexibility in the operation of the Right to Buy. The minister believes that the pressured area mechanism is only one way of achieving this.

"We are also committed to introducing legislation to end the right to buy for new build social houses and our recent announcement of a £25m incentive package will help to kick start a new generation of council house building in Scotland," He added.

Councillor Tom Barr, executive member for the Environment at North Ayrshire Council, said: "The Council is committed to meeting the affordable housing need of local people and to eradicating homelessness. By supporting our application, the Scottish Government has contributed to this vision by allowing us to retain social housing in highly pressured areas."

(GK/JM)