COUNCIL tenants are set to be presented with a rent increase proposal which could lead to new affordable homes being built in the area.

As part of a report on housing that was presented at a recent East Ayrshire Council cabinet, it was agreed that tenants will soon be given the option of a seven per cent rent increase or eight per cent, for 2025/26.

Council bosses say the eight per cent increase- which would be an average increase of £6.80 per week- would allow for 50 affordable new homes to be built within East Ayrshire.

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An extensive consultation is set to be undertaken with tenants prior to the festive period.

A similar proposals was put to tenants last year, which included the choice between a 6.5 per cent increase, or 7.5 per cent.

Tenants, in the end, chose the smaller increase, which meant that plans for new developments at Mason Avenue and Castle Street, New Cumnock were put on hold.

The New Cumnock proposals, which were originally approved by EAC’s cabinet in 2022, were described in November 2023 as a “project [that] would really improve the village and provide much needed homes for local people”.

According to a report prepared for last year's ret increase proposals, the consultation got a return rate of 9.41 per cent from the authority’s 11,582 tenants – a total of 1,089 responses.

75.9 per cent of the tenants who took part in the consultation backed the option for a smaller rent increase.