This observer was in conversation with one of the usual suspects this week and we were talking about how it was difficult for young people to get mortgages etc. The conversation then turned to what sort of housing might go on Sandown should a developer be found and whether there would be any "affordable housing" and who would be allowed to live in any such "affordable" accommodation. "I think it is time for a Nairn Housing Association," said the usual suspect, worried that once again Nairn's young people (and some not so young) would find themselves way down the queue. It was summed up very well back in June by another Community Councillor, Graham Vine:
"“I’ve had great difficulty trying to get consistent stories out of Highland Council. One of the questions that we were asking is whether people in Nairn get priority and I got a sort of Civil Service answer. Yes people with a local connection, if you have got a lad with a new wife in the back bedroom of his mum & dad’s house with a baby they get priority but their priority is 30 points and somebody that has landed in Inverness and is homeless has a priority of 70 points. So somebody with no connection to Nairn has a much greater priority than a family in Nairn that is overcrowded in one back bedroom.” All that in a previous Gurn article, Affordable Housing in Nairn - who gets it?
We, as a community have to look urgently at how we can take back local control of who goes into council or other association accommodation in Nairn. Hopefully the existing usual suspects and any that join them after the November CC elections will pursue this matter and Highland Councillors too, instead of quoting the rules of the existing situation, will seek to bring about change that will benefit those in Nairnshire who need accommodation.
