Capital homes in on more council house cash

CITY leaders hope to land extra cash to build more council houses in the Capital after the Scottish Government announced the latest tranche of funding for new local authority homes.

Councils are being invited to bid for a share in the third and final 25 million of the funding designed to kick start a new generation of council housing.

Edinburgh had already been awarded 4.6m for 184 homes in the first two rounds of funding.

Housing minister Alex Neil said the latest cash took the Scottish Government's funding for council houses to more than 75m.

He said: "Local authorities across Scotland have enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to apply for funding to help reverse decades of decline in council house building.

Edinburgh housing convener Paul Edie said he was "hopeful" of the city winning more cash.

He said: "We will put in a bid and see how we get on. I hope we can secure additional funding to help tackle the shortage of housing."