Rent rise warning on Highland council house proposal

A plan to transfer Highland council houses to an arms length body may not be feasible, it has emerged.

It had been suggested the move would release capital to build new local authority homes.

But Highland Council's housing and social work committee was told the project could result in large rent rises to make it work.

Funding house building through increased borrowing by the council will now be explored as an alternative.

A report to the committee said that this would be better value for money and would not involve such a large increase in rents.

The so called equity release proposal, which would involve the transfer of homes to an arms length body, has not been ruled out at this stage.