There are believed to be at least 8,000 people on the waiting list for council houses in the area – a figure that has more than doubled in the past 10 years.A recent study for the Highland Council, which provides about 200 new homes a year, revealed that a minimum of 5,000 affordable houses needed to be built over the next five years if the local authority was to keep pace with demand.Garry Coutts, Highland councillor for Beauly and Strathglass, said: “This is a problem we have been aware of for a long time and it’s getting worse. “When the Government allowed people to buy their council houses we thought it was a brilliant idea but now we are not so sure, as the houses are being bought by incomers. A council house, which was bought by the occupants for just £49,000, was sold for £126,000 earlier this year.”In a place like Plockton where the demands for holiday homes is so big, the right-to-buy council homes is maybe not such a good idea after all.”A survey by the rural housing association found that locally there were at least 22 people waiting for a house in Plockton and some people have had to live in caravans in and around the area while waiting for a house to come up they can afford.”In the past year property prices in the Highlands and Islands have risen by 14 per cent, with the typical house now fetching £74,700, while the number of local people registered as “without permanent accommodation” has continued to grow. But, from a population high of 537 in 1841 the village where residents never feel the need to lock their front doors now has fewer than 300 inhabitants. The primary school roll, which was at 80 ten years ago, is down to 40 children.”About 51 out of 150 houses are now holiday homes,” Mr MacRae said. Since then, it has been generating an annual income of £10,000 a year as a holiday let.Despite its commanding elevated view of Plockton, the setting for the fictional village in the popular BBC series Hamish MacBeth, the cottage is not unique in attracting the kind of prices that only outsiders can afford.Plockton is set on the east side of a great headland sticking out into Loch Carron and has been described as one of the most beautiful villages in Britain.

It’s the worst possible thing that could happen to the village. There have been no council or housing association homes built in the last 10 years so the young people in the village have no chance of being able to find a home.”For the local youngsters a price of £310,000 is an astronomical figure to pay.”Station House, which is 73 miles from Inverness, was previously bought as a holiday cottage about six years ago for less than £100,000 by an Aberdonian businessman. The last house in Plockton was sold for £220,000 and there was a council house sold for £126,000 recently.”The situation is becoming horrendous. I believe we have created what could be a spectacular addition to the Manchester skyline.”. Highland cattle wander the streets and the nearest supermarket is more than five miles away and yet a former council house has been sold for about £310,000 – £115,000 above the asking price.

He left school aged 16, and ran away from his parents to join his uncle in Liverpool There he worked as a gardener and handyman. But after renovating a house in the Wavertree district of the city, he realised he had a talent for dealing in property.Tony Burns, chairman of Manchester City Council’s planning committee, said he was “delighted” the project had been approved.Ian Simpson, of Ian Simpson Architects, which designed the development, said “This is an amazing project for our practice and for Manchester. Among those who have already bought apartments there are the Liverpool and England footballer Michael Owen.Although the Manchester residents will need a head for heights, almost all of the apartments and four of the 16 penthouses have already been sold, at prices ranging from £100,000 to £3m for a top-floor penthouse overlooking the Deansgate area.Work has also started on another Beetham project; a 120-metre, 29-storey development in Birmingham, which will house a Radisson hotel and 152 apartments.Mr Beetham’s skill at property development began modestly. Now under construction, that development – also named the Beetham Tower – will hold a four-star hotel and an office block housing the Passport Office when complete. Work will start on the £150m Beetham Tower in February, and will not be completed until 2006.

Keen buyers have already reserved £60m of the residences within four weeks of them going on sale.The Manchester development is part of an ambitious northern regeneration scheme being organised almost single-handed by Mr Beetham, 28, who made his name with a £60m tower project in Liverpool. The only reason the tower is not higher, according to its multimillionaire developer, Stephen Beetham, is that Manchester airport sets a 160-metre height limit on buildings in the city.When finished, the tower will be 30 metres higher than Britain’s tallest residential building, the Barbican in central London – although it will still be dwarfed by the 50-floor, 235m-high tower of Canary Wharf in London Docklands. The skyscraper will hold more than 200 apartments and penthouses, and a five-star 285-bed Hilton hotel.
From the top floor people might, on a clear day, be able to see as far as Snowdonia, Blackpool (with its 158-metre tower), and Liverpool. Britain’s highest residential building – a 157-metre (520ft) glass tower with 47 storeys – is to be built in Manchester. They “have seen many stumbling-blocks over the years that would easily have been sorted out if people had sat down together and worked out a mutually agreeable contract.” Typically, “problems arise when a desperate employer offers the moon at interview, and then a nanny finds extra workloads that have never been discussed, longer working-hours appearing from nowhere, or even an extra child on the scene. A partnership of mutual respect, one within which the nanny’s employment rights will be honoured, is usually the one that endures.”. The categories of information could be detailed to avoid misunderstandings.”A spokesperson from the North London Nannies agency, an established London agency, says that they “believe firmly in the value of contracts to protect both parties”.