£1m fund to bring empty Highland homes back to use

Highland councillors will be asked to approve plans for a £1m fund to help bring empty homes back into use at a meeting next week.

There are more long-term vacant properties in Highland than in any other local authority area in Scotland.

The fund would provide grants of up to £30,000 to eligible owners to help with repairs, upgrades and conversions.

It could open to applications before the end of the month.

There are 2,466 long term empty properties in the region, according to a report to a meeting of the full council.

Highland Council officials said the scheme would be directed at owners who had genuinely reached a financial "wall" and could not bring a property back into use without assistance.

A condition of the grant is that the homes would then have to be rented out for at least five years at a mid market affordable rent.

Alternatively, the owner could live there as their primary residence for the same time period.

If those terms were broken the grant would have to be repaid.

The policy is part of wider efforts by Highland Council to address a shortage of homes in the region.