A campaigner claims to have spoken to over 3,000 residents in Raac affected homes across Dundee and Angus.
Yvette Hoskins made the assertion while addressing the housing committee at Scottish Parliament today.
She also told MSPs how she believed the use of Raac in properties was first questioned in Dundee as early as the 1970s.
Yvette, said: “In our local area I have met with over 3,000 residents in Raac affected homes.
“That’s homeowners and tenants.
“We have information that suggests Raac was known about with a particular development in our area in 1977, 1978 and 1979.
“It was used as a pilot of testing how to deal with Raac roofing.
“This has been going on for quite a long time.
“It needs fixed – the numbers are extremely high and increasing all the time.”
The Courier revealed on Monday that currently 887 households in Dundee are affected and 26 in Angus.
‘We are very much on our own’
The campaigner called for a national fund to be created and said homeowners were being abandoned without help.
“We are not receiving any support, we’re not receiving any communication from local authorities and very little from government bodies as well,” Yvette told the local government, housing and planning committee.
“We are very much on our own.
“The impression being given is that anybody who bought under the right to buy scheme is responsible for there own homes.
“However they were sold their properties, as anybody else independently since then, without knowing there was Raac in their properties.
“There needs to be literally a national fund to actually have the Raac removed.
“Because if you don’t remove the Raac it causes issues for homeowners in regards to lenders, mortgages [and] insurance cover.”
‘They’ve washed their hands off them’
With Dundee at the centre of the issue, The Courier has launched our Trapped by Raac campaign with the help of residents and Homes Under the Hammer presenter Martel Maxwell.
Homeowners and tenants need 10,000 people to sign this petition to give them a voice – so we’re asking our readers to help them achieve that goal.
At the meeting in parliament, Yvette was backed up on her fears by tenant advocacy groups.
Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator for Scottish Tenants Association, called Raac “highly dangerous”.
“Essentially I think the governments have got to intervene here to provide financial help to the homeowners,” he told the committee.
“They’ve also got to provide new homes to tenants, because, in the most part, Raac homes will have to be demolished.
“For the homeowners, I think they should be given financial help because I think they’ve just been abandoned by everybody.
“They’ve washed their hands off them.”
Shona Gorman, vice-chair of Tenants Together Scotland: “The tenant experience in terms of Raac has been really awful, and also the homeowner.
“It’s been a very distressing situation with no immediate end in sight.
“Whether you’re a tenant or a homeowner this is absolutely not your fault.
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