An incentive scheme which encourages council tenants to help Aberdeenshire Council deliver a better quality of service has been approved by councillors.

By encouraging tenants to leave homes in good, lettable conditions the scheme is expected to save Aberdeenshire Council more than £100,000 each year.

It should also encourage a raising of housing standards and a reduction in the time houses lie empty between lets.

The council has been working for some time on a range of actions to improve standards and make best use of its limited housing stock.

Demand for council housing remains high, with a waiting list of over 7,000 people and high levels of homelessness.

The incentive scheme will see outgoing tenants paid £100 to meet a list of criteria which helps the council's housing service improve its service.

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Vice chairman of the Social Work and Housing Committee, Carl Nelson, welcomed the move and said he looked forward to it having a positive effect on standards and a reduction in costs.

"This is a real winner for all involved," he said. "It will reduce costs to council tenants as well as the waiting time for applicants.

"When you see the benefits, I think this one is well worth supporting."

Aberdeenshire Council's head of housing, Douglas Edwardson, said: "The reason we're doing this is not to give away £100, but to make the best use of the housing stock that we have.

"It’s to make sure that we can get a property back, fit-for-use, which has hopefully been viewed by an incoming tenant."

Councillors agreed the incentive scheme at a recent meeting of the Social Work and Housing Committee at Aberdeenshire Council's Woodhill House headquarters.

The proposal came out of a Kaizen Blitz held in February, which involved existing tenants and frontline council staff, and used the knowledge of employees and other stakeholders to review processes to ensure they are the best they can be.

A report will come back to the committee in a year to allow councillors to review the operation of the scheme and an interim report will help keep them updated.

(GK/JM)