Housing in East Ayrshire’s rural communities is to be put under the microscope as councillors agreed to a 6.5 per cent rise in council rents.
Tenants had been asked whether they preferred a 6.5 per cent or 7.5 per cent increase, on the basis that the higher rate would be required to develop council housing in New Cumnock.
While three quarters of tenants completing a survey indicated their preference for a six point five per cent rise, It had been expected that the SNP administration could favour the higher rate in order to progress the New Cumnock housing.
However, a middle ground was reached after the authority's depute leader, Councillor Jim McMahon, had spoken in favour of the 7.5 per cent increase at a cabinet meeting in November.
READ MORE: New Cumnock housing plans dealt major blow following rent increase
However, Cllr McMahon accepted the 6.5 per cent recommended by officers, providing work was undertaken to develop an action plan for the New Cumnock development and return to cabinet with a plan in November.
He added that the situation was affecting all rural communities in East Ayrshire and asked officers to undertake a full review of housing in rural areas by November 2025.
Cllr McMahon said that the challenge of an ageing population means that the council has to look at housing that meets the needs of older people while also encouraging younger generations to stay in their communities.
He said: “I have toiled and toiled since November and how I would deal with this and implications of not delivering this in New Cumnock.
“Equality, opportunity and community are just three overarching defined
missions of this council and the provision of affordable housing and of remote and rural communities is vital to that.
“Housing plays an important role in sustaining rural communities and supporting them to thrive.
He said that housing ‘of the right type in the right place’ can provide a ‘powerful and generational impact, supporting people to access the homes they need, enabling young people to stay in the communities in which they grew up and supporting local businesses and services to retain and attract employees.
This was particularly important within the former coalfield communities in the south of the authority, he added.
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The SNP councillor for Cumnock and New Cumnock continued: “I recognize the complexity of delivering more homes in the right places in our remote and rural communities and that one size does not fit all.
“Interventions that work in one community are definitely not going to work in another community.
“I would like to bring forward an additional recommendation that given New Cumnock has been identified previously as a strategic site, to deliver a remit to officers to undertake local research in the form of a housing need survey to measure housing need within New Cumnock.”
He said that officers should then identify a clear outcome to progress the New Cumnock development by November.
Cllr McMahon also called on a similar process to be carried out across East Ayrshire’s rural communities and brought back in November 2025.
Council leader Douglas Reid backed the amendment, adding that while he was not pleased to increase rent levels, East Ayrshire remained one of the lowest rent charges in Scotland.
He added that there was a disparity between the growth in the north of the authority and the decline in south.
He said: “The time is now for actually halting that.”
Labour depute leader Barry Douglas said: “I have certainly got a lot of sympathy with much that the depute leader and leader have said today.
“Depopulation is is a big problem particularly in the west coast of Scotland and we know that, yes, it’s probably masked to an extent in East Ayrshire. “
He said that the council may not have ‘quite grasped’ all of the issues around the decline and impact of public services, but said it was ‘important that we are there as as a local authority and we can’t let communities be be left behind or feel to be left behind’
“I’m sure even from what we’re doing today, what we’ll see in a few years time will be quite transformational.
He also welcomed the decision to approve the lower rent increase.
Cllr Douglas said: “l think it is important that we are mindful of it in a cost of living crisis that, despite what we hear out there about inflation coming down, prices are still rising for household goods.
“People who are only just managing, with some of them clinging around with their fingertips, this rent increase is probably at the limits of what they can afford.
“To have pushed it any further I think I would have found difficult.”
The amendment was also backed by the Conservative group.
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