Delays in council house construction across Perthshire are costing hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost rent.
Council chiefs are facing mounting pressure to explain the massive loss of income caused by ongoing building problems, including a troubled flats development that ground to a halt more than a year ago.
The £294,000 under-recovery of rent was highlighted in a report to the local authority’s policy and resources committee.
Councillor Peter Barrett said the figure represented a “fantastical sum” lost to the housing budget. He has now called for an inquiry to get to the root of the problem.
“£300K equates to 100 three-bedroom council houses being delayed by a year,” he said.
“How can there be under-recovery of rents of this size given the far smaller scale of new council houses being built?”
It also emerged that work on 10 new council properties at Perth Road, Scone, has run £132,000 over budget.
Work stalled on the project in June last year when the contractor, McCormack Developments, went into receivership.
Mr Barrett said: “The losses in rent are very worrying. Their sheer scale suggests there are significant failures by the council in their construction management processes and penalty clauses for contractor delays.
“There needs to be urgent action taken to ensure current and future council housebuilding gets back on track.”
A spokeswoman for Perth and Kinross Council said: “The reduction of income is mainly due to some delays in building our new council houses and converting some existing properties into residential accommodation.
“The figure also, however, includes a reduction in income due to tenants exercising their right to buy, for which the council received significant capital receipts of £1.5 million.
“It is important to highlight that, overall, the shortfall in rents represents just over 1% of our total rental income,” she went on.
“There can be challenges in delivering successful new council houses, not least due to external factors including drainage, land and contractor issues.”