The target has been set for the number of homes to be built and bought by South Lanarkshire Council by the end of March 2027, and it follows an earlier programme of 1,000 additional homes between 2017 and 2022/23.

Council Leader Joe Fagan said the new five-year target was even more ambitious than the last one to reflect the growing need and demand for local affordable housing.

Councillor Fagan said: “The cost-of-living crisis and the huge financial pressures on ordinary people right now are – unfortunately – making the need for affordable housing even more starkly clear.

“These plans show how serious the council is about helping local people by being unashamedly ambitious about our plans, and this target is being set to show how determined we are to deliver on the promises we made that we would create more council homes.”

The target was approved at the same Executive Committee meeting today at which a new Local Housing Strategy was tabled. It identified increasing the overall housing supply as a key priority – “improving access to and choice of housing options that suit people’s needs which they can afford and sustain.”

The committee heard that the new target adds to the council’s affordable supply programme Home+, which has also modernised existing homes and made them among the most energy efficient in the country, through double glazing and better insulation.

Davie McLachlan, the council’s Housing and Technical Resources committee chair, said: “Most of the 1,300 additional homes in our new programme will be new homes built on existing council-owned land, but as part of our strategy we will also buy ‘off the shelf’ new homes from developers, and suitable existing homes.

“The important thing is that we do our bit to provide more affordable social housing, of a variety that meets the needs of local people while maintaining affordability and value for money.”

There is a national target to deliver an additional 110,000 affordable homes across Scotland by 2032, with at least 70% of these for social rent. The council’s programme will be supported by Scottish Government grant funding towards the cost of building and buying additional homes.

The committee was told that additional capital costs to the council and the cost of borrowing required to help fund the programme would be offset over a 40-year period by the rent received from the additional homes.