MANY families are feeling frustration at the lockdown seeing Fife Council’s house allocation system grind to a halt over the past four months.

Kelty and Cowdenbeath councillor, Alex Campbell, has received a lot of calls from constituents asking when their allocation request will be processed.

And he has made a request to council housing chief, John Mills, stating that the time has come when allocations need to be tackled.

In a letter to Mr Mills he said: “I am becoming increasingly concerned at the numbers of people being impacted by the decision to stop housing allocations in Fife.

“I totally understand why this happened and the safety of workers and tenants must be at the fore.

“However given the very negative impact on people and the fact we are simply storing up problems, I do believe it is time to bring forward a proposal to get the housing allocations moving again.

“I would be grateful if you can advise what is the current thinking and when will you bring forward a proposal to get council housing moving again in Fife?”

Mr Mills wrote back to him: “We have continued with a low level of housing allocations throughout lockdown, but mainly to statutory homeless households to alleviate pressure on our temporary accommodation.

“We do recognise that stopping normal housing allocations is not sustainable as we need to start our recovery for the housing access system in Fife.

“I am currently working on plans to restart some transfers during July which will help generate void properties to allocate.

“One of the main problems we have experienced is a substantial reduction in normal termination of tenancies as people were advised by the Scottish Government not to move home. Our new build supply has dried up as the new build sites were closed.

“I need to discussions with the Housing Convener about our plans which will be ready be the end of this month. A members briefing could then be circulated to bring Councillors up to speed.”

Mr Campbell was encouraged by the news but added: “It is coming up for four months since we have seen any normality in allocations and understandably people are becoming very frustrated at not being able to get homes more suited to their needs.

“Many have seen their hopes for new homes dashed and it is leading stresses in households and a new strategy is needed quickly.”