A housing crisis could see Perthshire become a ”pressured area” for the next decade, The Courier has learned.
The move would mean no council houses across the region would be sold for the next 10 years, except in extreme circumstances. It is being considered because there is one house for every five people waiting and that wait for the right home can last up to five years.
A paper to be placed before the Perth and Kinross Council’s housing and health committee suggests sounding out tenants and their representative groups and landlords about the move as soon as possible.
Over the course of the decade, it is estimated 160 houses would otherwise be sold from the rapidly diminishing council stock.
The move to block future sales has been suggested by the council’s executive director of housing and community care, David Burke, and will be considered at Wednesday’s meeting of the housing and health committee.
Pressured area status has already been granted for Highland Perthshire and the greater Perth area and runs out in February. Since the right to buy was introduced in 1980, the council has lost over half its housing stock and has just 7,333 homes on its books.
The latest figures available, from July, show the council is dealing with 4,431 applicants with housing needs.
Since the recession, the bottom has fallen out of the housebuilding industry and impacted on the number of homes being created by housing associations.
The Perth and Kinross population is expected to rise by far quicker than the national average in the next 25 years.
Mr Burke says such factors mean the situation is becoming so critical that the whole council area should now be covered by pressured area status.