West Lothian bucks house-building trend

Feb 4 2010 by Marjorie Kerr, West Lothian Courier

WEST Lothian is bucking the Scottish house-building trend.

New figures show a rise in the number of new homes being constructed in the county.

A total of 496 applications to build new homes in the area were received by the National House Building Council (NHBC) in 2009, a 34 per cent increase on the 369 applications received during 2008.

This compares well to the Scotland-wide figures for the same period which show a fall of 12 per cent from 8092 in 2008 to 7115 in 2009.

However, the Scottish outlook based on the last three months of last year is much more positive.

During October to December 2009 NHBC received 1965 applications to build new homes – an 87 per cent rise on applications received during the same three-month period in 2008 (1051).

The first phase of 248 new-build council houses in West Lothian is nearing completion, with 79 of these properties already occupied.

Phase two is expected to start in the autumn and will result in approximately 550 houses and flats being built in Whitburn, Livingston, Bathgate, Armadale, Uphall Station and Blackburn.