Wednesday January 21st 2026
Heaps of rubbish piled up in one house (photo by West Lothian Council).
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
By Stuart Sommerville, LDR
West Lothian Council is to tighten up its inspection regime for council houses.
The changes were agreed by an often fractious meeting of the full council, resulting in rare cross-bench agreement.
A common theme across the chamber in Livingston was the desire to cut down the number of void, or empty homes, which require thousands of pounds of refurbishment after abandonment.
Refurbishment of void homes costs the council in excess of half a million pounds per year, with most left in the worst state of repair, requiring more than £10,000 a house to be made fit for re-let.
Conservative Angela Doran-Timson initially proposed a motion calling for an improved inspection regime for council houses, but eventually backed an amendment raised by the SNP’s Pauline Orr.
Labour had raised its own amendment to the proposal but it too decided not to pursue it, with council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick saying the party would back the SNP motion.
The extraordinary moves followed earlier breaks in the meeting for parties across the chamber to composite motions and amendments.
Councillor Doran-Timson called for regular inspections at six and 12 months as well as additional support for vulnerable tenants, targeted intervention on properties likely to be abandoned and more funding to manage council housing.
Councillor Doran-Timson said: “This is why this motion is so important. It’s reintroducing regular inspection and strengthening early intervention. It is isn’t just about saving money, it’s about protecting homes, supporting tenants and ensuring families waiting for homes aren’t left waiting for years.”
Councillor Orr’s amendment went further stating: “Consideration should be given as to how existing arrangements can be enhanced.
“The introduction of an initial check-in of the property three months from tenancy start, to determine if this will assist in identifying any early potential concerns and support decision making around regularity of future inspections.”
The motion and two amendments stressed recognition of hard work already done by the central voids team which coordinates repairs and re-letting, and the council’s 33 housing officers and 15 Estates officers.
Advocating the new check three months into new tenancies Councillor Orr told the meeting: “There is scope for more to be done and at pace. The council needs to strengthen measures.
“Tenants need to realise that they do have a responsibility. Cost of malicious damaged should be recoverable from the tenant. We are a landlord just like any other.”
Backing a Labour amendment from Executive councillor for housing George Paul, Councillor Andrew McGuire, Independent, said: “I think there’s much to be commended in all three motions which have been placed before the council. It’s a shame we could not composite them.
“Key is we have no statutory right to enter tenant’s homes. We have to have engagement and build relationships with people.
“Unfortunately we are never going to stamp out the poor condition that some properties are returned in.
“The difficulty for the council is that it wears two hats: it is the guardian as last resort of housing with its statutory duty to tackle homelessness and also a landlord, as Councillor Orr highlighted, and those two things can conflict with each other and create problems we are never going to get away from.
“I think the programme under way to improve void times has been helpful and I hope that we can reduce void times.”
Tory group leader Damian Doran-Timon, adressing the Provost, who had ruled against a composite being worked out said: “Is it within Standing Orders that you can not allow people to composite during the meeting, and point two, these motions were moved by Angela Doran-Timson. How are we to know that other groups may want to composite? We can’t approach them. It’s for them to approach us, including your party Provost, so it may be you need to get that over to your party before you lecture us on [seeking] composite during the meeting.”
Provost Muldoon told the meeting that all councillors had sight of the motions for two weeks before the meeting and had also been asked to meet to arrange composites before the start.
Expressing frustration, Provost Muldoon said: “We’re not having any more breaks. I think we have been very, very lenient on this.”
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