At a meeting of the council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee, councillors were provided with detailed updates on the activity undertaken by the council and its partners since it declared a housing emergency in June 2023.

This update included the following:

• From June 2023 until the end of February 2025, the council granted planning consent for 860 residential units in the region.
• In January 2025, the council engaged consultants to develop the Strategic Development Frameworks for Oban (OSDF) and Helensburgh (HSDF). Both of these are intended to identify long-term strategic development opportunities.
• The council has continued to develop business cases for the proposals for a worker accommodation pilot on Mull and market housing for principal home occupation on Islay.
• The council is working with Mull and Iona Community Trust to deliver worker housing in Tobermory. On-site infrastructure is currently being installed and will be complete by July 2025.
• The council’s Empty Homes Officer has been working with the HSCP to assist empty homes owners to bring back properties into use for HSCP staff. The award-winning role has directly enabled homes and beds for use by HSCP workers in Colonsay, Connel, Tiree, and Islay.
• Community housing associations in Argyll and Bute are at various stages of developing up to 600 residential units across the area.
• Council Leader Jim Lynch, Chief Executive Pippa Milne and representatives from Link Housing Group and Colonsay Community Development Company met with members of the Scottish Government, Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, in Oban to look at how the council is responding to the housing emergency and help inform the Committee’s inquiry into the national housing emergency.
• The council approved a Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy in November 2024, which sets out a policy framework that assists in reducing fuel poverty. Officers are now working to identify deliverable projects, and use the LHEES to support funding applications.
• Several community housing projects are currently ongoing across Argyll and Bute to create new homes and bring empty properties back into use.
• The council continues to work with SSEN to deliver their worker housing strategy in association with the delivery of the overhead power line projects they have ongoing.
  You can view the full update on the council website: HOUSING EMERGENCY UPDATE.pdf.

Council leader, Councillor Jim Lynch, said: “We continue to undertake a huge amount of work with our partners, key agencies and the government to address the shortage of suitable, affordable housing in Argyll and Bute.

“We have been working tirelessly on a wide range of projects to address the housing emergency, and we have made great progress in the last 12 months. We still have a long way to go, but it is encouraging to see the collective efforts that are being made by everyone involved to tackle the housing shortage and bring these projects to fruition.”