by Gillian McPherson

A WAR of words has erupted over a £28.8 million investment boost for affordable housing in Clydebank and West Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Government announced the funds would be given to the council over the next three years to increase the number of homes available in the area.

West Dunbartonshire Council welcomed the funding handout saying it provides “certainty” in to deliver their “ambitious More Homes Better Homes programme” of 1,000 new homes for rent by 2021.

However, Labour councillors say the amount is nowhere near the level required and criticised the funding formula that favoured housing associations.

Cllr Martin Rooney, the Labour group leader, said: “The council had already assumed this funding in its housing investment plans which were agreed in February.

“Labour’s former housing convener, Cllr David McBride, had argued for an even greater increase in funding for the council on the basis that council tenants should receive the same level of funding support as tenants in housing associations.

“Unfortunately, the [housing] minister has not accepted his arguments and has stuck with the unfair Scottish Government funding formula.”

Cllr McBride added: “We had committed to building at least 1,000 new social homes over the next five years and we are making great progress with this. I want to see West Dunbartonshire residents get a fairer deal so that we can build even more homes.

“If the minister had accepted my proposal then this would have meant an extra 100 new homes could have been built on top of what we had already planned.”

But Gil Paterson, Clydebank’s MSP, rejected the criticisms.

He said: “Labour councillors Rooney and McBride may want to reflect on the time when Labour was last in power in the Scottish Parliament, they built a total of six council houses. Six for the whole of Scotland.

“When Labour was in power they sold off tens of thousands of council houses with Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme – a scheme the SNP has ended.

“Typical Labour, we’re putting all this money into housing, have stopped the sale of council houses – all the things they wouldn’t do – and they are still moaning.”

The council first unveiled the ambitious new housing plan to deliver 1,000 homes back in November last year. It detailed priority affordable housing projects in West Dunbartonshire which are either underway or planned over the years ahead.

Key areas areas identified included: more than 150 new homes delivered by Dunbritton Housing Association at Dumbarton Harbour; 40 new council homes for rent at Second Avenue, Clydebank; 200 new affordable homes at Queens Quay, Clydebank through Wheatley Group and Clydebank Housing Association; 400 new homes developed across West Dunbartonshire through the council’s strategic housing partnership with Wheatley Group; and over 100 new council designed homes on the site of the former St Andrews School in Clydebank.