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Council’s housing debts have grown by more than £290 million over 14 years

AnyFans 2025-09-21

By Olivia Andrews

In the last 14 years Highland Council’s housing-related debts have grown by more than £290 million – an average rate of £20.7 million a year.

The figures were revealed in a response to a question by Councillor Alex Graham (Inverness West, Liberal Democrats) who had asked for figures for the last 25 years but received numbers going back only to 2003/04.

The council’s housing revenue account (HRA) is used to maintain loan repayments, including interest, while the capital account is used to build new council-owned homes or other properties.

The current HRA debt is £429 million – a figure that raises questions about the affordability of the council’s aim to work with the private sector to build 24,000 new homes in the next decade, adding to their current stock of 15,000.

In order to build new homes, the council can either add to its growing debt or use money from current tenants’ rent that, despite being raised two years in a row, will have little impact on their ability to provide affordable homes.

When asked about the reality of the proposals, Cllr Graham said it was going to be a “huge challenge” and would require either “external funding” or “enormous debt”.

The proposed homes are desperately needed after the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency in May, acknowledging issues across the country.

Highland Council is working through a housing development action plan to try to combat a lack of affordable housing locally.

When asked about how they were going to fund the 24,000 new homes a spokesperson for Highland Council said: “The vision is for a mixture of developments delivered in partnership with private and public sector organisations.”

“The council is committed to developing a five-year rent strategy which will address issues around housing revenue account debt while also identifying the investment required to continue to deliver new build houses and retrofit existing stock.

“This strategy will be presented to the housing and property committee for approval at January’s committee ahead of the next financial year.”

The earliest entry shows a balance of £174 million in the HRA back in 2003/04 but by 2010 the local authority had managed to pay it down to its lowest level of £139 million. Then from 2011/12 until 2015/16 the council took on another £127 million in debt leading to an outturn balance of £234 million.

Borrowing dipped the following year to £8 million before picking up again in 2017/18 when it hit £17 million and has increased every year since then except 2020/21.

Borrowing in the last four financial years ranged from a low of £39 million to a high of £45 million.

The local authority’s housing debt is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to its money troubles. In August it was revealed that Highland Council is the third most indebted council in Scotland. Figures obtained from the BBC showed the council’s totlal debt in the final quarter of the 2024/25 financial year stood at just under £1.3 billion.

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