North Lanarkshire Council

Holytown is home to our new generation of affordable houses - the first of 500 new homes over the next five years as part of our £80m new build programme.

And a special event, to mark the opening of the first 20 new build houses for North Lanarkshire, centred on the new community in Holytown who are settling in to their new homes.

"This is our first new house build programme and is in addition to the £53m we are already spending this year upgrading our existing stock," explained Councillor Barry McCulloch, Convener of Housing and Social Work Services.

"We recognise that there is a real shortage of good quality affordable housing in some areas and we are pleased that we can directly contribute to meeting this need through the delivery of high quality new homes."

The £2.1m Holytown project, consisting of ten homes specifically for older people on Main Street and ten three-bedroom family homes at Spruce Way, was completed by Lovell Partnerships Ltd on time and on budget.

New tenants Mr & Mrs Watt are already settling in to their new home. They said, "We're delighted with our new home and it being all on the one level has made a huge difference to our lives. We love the area and that we are close to shops as well as the privacy we have in our new garden especially coming into summer."

Mary Castles, Executive Director of housing and social work added, "We're delighted that our ambitious plans for new affordable homes across North Lanarkshire are gathering pace. Work is already ongoing on other developments in Clarkston, Airdrie and Cambusnethan in Wishaw. Work is due to start at North Road in Cumbernauld later this year. We've also agreed to purchase 18 new properties as part of the initial phase of housing at the Ravenscraig development and work on these excellent family homes is already underway.

"We're committed to meeting the housing needs of our communities, while at the same time supporting the local economy at a very difficult time for the building industry."