Fife council bought back just two Cowdenbeath homes

Councillor Bailey-Lee Robb has branded the figures as “scandalous” and said it was an “absolute failure” of the Labour administration.

The statistics were revealed during an update given to members of the Cowdenbeath Area Committee.

“Two buy backs this year is not good enough,” said Cllr Robb. “For a council that is in a housing emergency, I think it is an absolute failure of the service and an absolute failure of the political leadership of this council to have only bought back two properties in the last 12 months.

“There have been countless properties that have come up in the area that would have been suitable.

“I know there are stringent criteria but two is a smack in the face to the people of Fife but also the people of Cowdenbeath sitting on this housing list.

“I would welcome more information you can provide after this meeting as to how many properties have been considered, the reasons why they were not purchased back because two is a slap in the face.

“Property prices are less in Cowdenbeath than in North East Fife or Kirkcaldy or Dunfermline. Two is not good enough.

“When we have report after report to this committee that Cowdenbeath is a more deprived area and there is more poverty, that impacts property prices.”

Cowdenbeath Area Housing Manager Amanda Cathrew stressed that the council was on track to buy back a total of 100 homes across Fife.

“It is swings and roundabouts – last year we had five property acquisitions. Two out of 100 – there is room for improvement but we have had more affordable homes being delivered in this area compared to others also.”

Committee convener, Councillor Alex Campbell, said there were likely to be reasons why only two were bought back.

“I was recently engaged in a housing purchase discussion with a constituent and they paid £25,000 over the asking price,” he commented,

“It would be good to find out the extent of the houses we tried to buy and reasons why we didn’t buy them.”

A report to the committee had revealed that an additional 19 affordable homes had been completed in the Cowdenbeath area in 2025/26.

Councillor Bailey-Lee Robb

In addition, the new extra care housing and bungalows built at former Jenny Gray Care Home site in Lochgelly are to provide an additional 44 older person sheltered and amenity properties.

A further 97 properties are under development in Lumphinnans with 45 homes expected to be handed over by August next year and the remainder still to be programmed.

Progress was also being made at the new Flockhouse site at Lochore where an additional 51 properties are currently programmed to be complete and fully handed over in early March 2027.