Monday December 1st 2025
West Lothian Council headquarters
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
The national campaign for home-owners affected by crumbling concrete has called on West Lothian Council to find cash to help people.
The call comes in an open letter just days ahead of a meeting with Mairi McAllan, the Housing Minister.
The RAAC UK group told the council: “Home-owners need solutions now, not more delays.”
A council spokesperson said: “We would never have sold homes if we were aware of any potential structural issues with them.”
The campaign is led by Wilson Chowdhry, whose daughter bought a RAAC affected house in Aberdeen. Vice chair is Kerry Macintosh from Livingston who fought for 18 years for a new home when the Deans South estate was cleared after crumbling concrete was found in roof panels.
The campaign has fought for home-owners from Aberdeen south through Dundee to Tillicoultry who have been affected to varying degrees by the discovery of RAAC panels in their former council homes.
The campaign says that where other councils have tried to find financial help for homeowners West Lothian has provided only advice.
Addressing Ms McAllan, Lawrence Fitzpatrick, the council leader, Cathy Muldoon, the Provost, and Graham Hope the council’s Chief Executive the campaign group wrote: “Following the West Lothian Council Executive’s discussion on RAAC in September 2024, there was hope that a meaningful support framework might emerge. More than a year later, the situation remains largely unchanged for the estimated 337 private home-owners affected.
“West Lothian Council continues to rely solely on its Scheme of Assistance Strategy, which provides advice but no financial relief. This approach falls far short of what is possible under Section 71 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, which empowers councils to provide direct financial assistance, grants, or loans to home-owners in crisis.
“By contrast, Fife Council revised plans to charge home-owners up to £19,000 for roof repairs, ultimately capping contributions at £7,000 per household and absorbing financial risk while seeking external funding.
“This example demonstrates that local authorities already have the flexibility to alleviate homeowners’ financial distress — flexibility that West Lothian Council has so far failed to exercise.”
The campaign group called for a financial plan to help home-owners.
It also wants Almond Housing to attend the meeting planned for Wednesday and to fully engage with the council and the housing meeting.
A West Lothian Council spokesperson said: “We appreciate the difficult position some West Lothian home owners find themselves in, and that RAAC is a national issue affecting many in Scotland and across the UK.
“To try and support them, we invited all affected West Lothian home-owners to meet with us to allow us to gather the issues that home-owners which were then raised with the Scottish Government’s Minister for Housing on their behalf.
“The meeting which is scheduled to take place on 3 December has been called by the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Housing.
“This is a private meeting to which representatives from affected home owners groups, local campaign groups and elected representatives have already been invited.”
They added: “The council does not have any responsibilities or maintenance or repair obligations in relation to privately owned properties, which are the sole responsibility of their owners.
“Under the Right to Buy Scheme, we were legally required to sell council homes to their tenants at significantly discounted rates if the tenant requested it.
“Any homes with RAAC would have been bought from the council before Right to Buy ended in 2016, and many years before the Institute of Structural Engineers updated guidance was published in April 2023.
“We would never have sold homes if we were aware of any potential structural issues with them, and the homes complied with all relevant building standards at the time.
“Information and advice for any West Lothian residents affected by RAAC is available on our website at https://www.westlothian.gov.uk/raac-council-housing“.
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