Seven towns are to benefit from a £2.75 million fund aimed at breathing new life into town centres.
The cash will be spent on converting vacant properties into "affordable" homes in Cupar in Fife; Alva in Clackmannanshire; Crieff in Perth and Kinross; Coatbridge in North Lanarkshire; Tranent in East Lothian; Carnoustie in Angus; and Kirkintilloch in East Dunbartonshire all to receive a share of the funds.
The scheme is a demonstration project that is part of the Scottish Government's town centre action plan.
Local Government Minister Derek Mackay unveiled the blueprint in November, saying it will help to bring about a "new era" for Scotland's high streets.
Local authorities, housing associations and private developers were urged to apply for a share of the funding pot.
Clackmannanshire Council receives £782,000 to help develop 17 homes in Stirling Street, Alva, and Fife Council gets £764,000 for 18 properties at Cupar's County Buildings. Angus Council gets £200,000 to develop about four homes in Carnoustie High Street, while East Dunbartonshire Council gets the same amount for six homes in Townhead, Kirkintilloch.
Some of the money is being given to housing associations. Castle Rock Edinvar Housing Association receives £350,000 to help provide seven homes in Bridge Street, Tranent, and Kingdom Housing Association gets £255,523 for 14 properties at the former Crown Hotel in Crieff. Clyde Valley Housing Association is getting £150,000 for seven homes in Bank Street, Coatbridge.
Mr Mackay said: "The Scottish Government is determined our town centres should be vibrant, attractive and safe places where local people and visitors alike want to live, work and do business in. The town centre housing fund is one of a range of measures designed to encourage and support action to improve our town centres."
The Government's action plan includes plans to extend the Fresh Start business rates relief scheme, which halves business rates for firms taking on empty property.
Ministers will also be working with council group Cosla to develop a "town centre first" policy so public bodies have to "consider" helping local high streets before thinking about developments elsewhere, while councils are to be given powers to establish town centre "investment zones".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article