Open Letter to Councillor Ellen Forson (follow-up)

 Open Letter to Councillor Ellen Forson

Leader of Clackmannanshire Council

Cc: All Clackmannanshire Councillors; Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing, Shirley-Anne Somerville; Scottish Government Housing Directorate

Dear Councillor Forson,

Thank you for your response of 7 July.

I appreciate your apology regarding communication, but I must respectfully correct a number of points within your email.

Firstly, your calculation of the response time is misleading. Fran emailed you on 24 June and received your acknowledgement on 25 June. No further update was provided until your email of 7 July. Depending on whether 25 June is counted, this represents 12–13 calendar days without any substantive response.

I appreciate that you refer to six working days. However, councillors do not simply cease acting at weekends. Councillors across the UK routinely undertake official duties seven days a week, including attending community events, opening ceremonies and responding to residents' correspondence. Indeed, I can provide numerous examples of elected members responding to emails over weekends. It is therefore disappointing that the passage of almost two weeks is being presented as though only six days have elapsed.

More importantly, this matter did not begin with Fran's email. Every councillor received my earlier correspondence, together with emails copied to the local media, specifically to ensure there was a clear public record of homeowners' concerns. All elected members were aware that I had been asked to act as spokesperson for the affected homeowners and could have contacted me at any point with an update. Unfortunately, no elected member has done so despite homeowners waiting for meaningful progress since the meeting with the Housing Minister in November last year.

I also believe your understanding of the current position does not accurately reflect what homeowners have been told by Council officers over the last several months.

You state that the Council has been awaiting decisions from homeowners and that delays now risk the remediation programme. That is not consistent with the information officers have repeatedly provided.

Several deadlines previously given for accepting the Council's offers were allowed to lapse. I repeatedly sought clarification from Andrew Buchanan, Kim Grieve and Kevin Wells regarding those deadlines. We were consistently informed that matters had been placed on hold pending discussions with the Scottish Government and consideration of whether additional financial assistance could be made available.

Indeed, on 9 January 2026 Andrew Buchanan confirmed in writing:

"Please consider the deadline as suspended with further information to follow as soon as we have it."

He went on to explain that the Council was reviewing its offers and engaging with the Scottish Government following the November meeting with the Cabinet Secretary.

Six months have now passed since that assurance. No further information has been issued.

During that period, homeowners have continued to wait for:

·       confirmation of revised offers;

·       confirmation of the VAT liability each homeowner would face, despite requesting this information for well over a year;

·       information regarding the environmental retrofit funding Mr Kevin Wells advised might offset homeowners' costs;

·       clarification regarding any additional fixed payment that officers repeatedly indicated was being explored.

Throughout this period homeowners have continued paying mortgages, insurance and other unavoidable costs while remaining unable to live in their homes.

Your email also appears to misunderstand what was discussed with the Housing Minister.

Nobody expected the Scottish Government's Affordable Housing Supply Programme grant itself to be paid directly to homeowners. That was never the proposal.

At the meeting with the Housing Minister, and subsequently during discussions with officials from the Better Homes Division, it was made clear that the Scottish Government would expedite the Council's application for remediation funding. The expectation discussed at those meetings was that, once remediation funding had been secured, the Council would explore whether resources from elsewhere within its budgets could be used to provide homeowners with a fixed payment to assist them in moving forward.

Council officers reinforced that expectation over the following months. As recently as March, Kevin Wells informed me that, depending upon the level of grant received from the Scottish Government, the Council was considering an additional fixed payment of between £10,000 and £15,000 for affected homeowners.

Your email now appears to abandon that position entirely.

It is therefore extremely disappointing that, after asking homeowners to wait a further six months whilst these discussions continued, the Council now simply states that no additional financial assistance will be forthcoming despite having secured the Scottish Government funding for the remediation programme.

I would therefore again ask the Council to reconsider.

Even a fixed payment of £5,000 per homeowner would make a significant difference. For many residents it would clear the balance of their remaining mortgages. At the very least, it would provide some recognition of the additional financial burden homeowners have borne over the last six months while waiting for the Council's decision regarding the redistribution of its own resources following receipt of the Scottish Government grant.

Finally, I welcome your commitment to arranging a meeting between homeowners, elected members and senior officers. I hope this can take place as soon as possible. I do, however, have several holidays already booked over the coming weeks, so I would appreciate as much notice as possible to maximise the opportunity for me and other homeowners to attend.

I look forward to receiving details of the meeting and, more importantly, to finally receiving the substantive update that homeowners have patiently awaited for many months.

Yours sincerely,

Wilson Chowdhry

Chairman

UK RAAC Campaign Group

On behalf of affected RAAC homeowners in Tillicoultry

Cc: Clackmannanshire Council, Scottish Government Housing Directorate, Housing Minister Shirley-Anne Summervile