The first Local Housing Strategy (LHS) for the West Dunbartonshire area was approved by Council in June 2004 and submitted to Communities Scotland for assessment in July 2004. This is a new form of strategic planning for housing and the LHS pulls together information on the need and demand for housing across all tenures, including housing for those with special needs. Although the statutory responsibility for publishing the LHS lies with West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC), the LHS is a partnership document containing information from a wide variety of partners including Communities Scotland and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) operating in the WDC area.
The housing scene is changing very rapidly at present with the introduction of new legislation affecting both social rented and privately owned and rented houses. Certain matters, such as the introduction of a new Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) for all social landlords, could not be included in our first LHS as we did not have full details at the time of publication. Therefore, we will be producing an Annual Update to the LHS in the summer of 2005 that will include how WDC and RSLs intend to bring all of their houses up to the new quality standard.
The Annual Update will also give more details of future plans for the WDC housing stock, which is the subject of an option appraisal exercise at present. A sample House Condition Survey will also be carried out in early 2005 to complement the options appraisal and this will help to identify areas for future investment in the WDC housing stock, including what has to be done to meet the SHQS requirements. RSLs are going through the same process and they will also have to produce a Standard Delivery Plan laying out how their houses will be brought up to the new standard.
Finally, WDC is preparing a Local Plan for the whole of West Dunbartonshire, this will include information on land available for housing development together with other issues relevant to the LHS. It is anticipated that the new Local Plan will be available in time to inform the first Annual Update of the LHS next summer.
For more information on any of the above, please contact Jeff Stobo, Tel 01389 737580.
Download the full text of the
West Dunbartonshire Local Housing Strategy 2004 - 2009.
You can also downlead the
LHS 2007 update. 
