We Asked, You Said, We Did

We asked if you supported the proposed sale of the former Alyth Museum building to Alyth Youth Partnership.

The former Alyth Museum building at 14 Commercial Street, Alyth is a common good property owned by Perth and Kinross Council and held on the Alyth Common Good Fund. It has been vacant since the museum was permanently closed by Culture Perth and Kinross in September 2025, and the Council has declared the building to be surplus to its property requirements.

Alyth Youth Partnership (AYP), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, is a community-run, voluntary youth organisation that aims to provide safe and enjoyable activities for the young people of Alyth and the surrounding area, encourages them to be a positive part of the Alyth community, and supports them to make positive choices for their futures.

While AYP is based in the Alyth Community Wing on Albert Street, they identified a requirement for a separate, dedicated base for teenagers. They accordingly worked up a proposal to lease the former museum building from the Council so they can operate it as a youth centre and community resource, on the following terms, namely:

• the proposed start date is the end of March 2026 or such other date as may be agreed following submission of a report to the Alyth Common Good Fund Committee.
• the Tenant shall pay a rent of £1 per annum, if asked.
• the initial lease duration will be twenty-five years.
• the Tenant will use the former museum for the purposes of a community youth hub for social, educational and recreational purposes and associated support activities.
• the Tenant will require to obtain all necessary statutory consents in connection with the proposed use.
• the Tenant will be responsible for all repairs to the leased subjects and buildings insurance.
• on other normal commercial terms.

The Council was supportive of this proposal, subject to approval from the Alyth Common Good Fund Committee. Officers consider that this proposal would have a strong positive impact on the community by providing facilities including youth clubs, school holiday programmes, individual support and employability sessions, an information point and community resource. AYP’s proposal includes undertaking refurbishment and adaptation works to make the building fully suited to their intended use.

The proposed lease gave AYP the option to purchase the building, subject to separate approval from the Alyth Common Good Fund Committee. A further public consultation exercise would be carried out if AYP apply to purchase the building from the Council in the future.

189 people responded to the consultation, with the vast majority of comments indicating strong support for the proposal. 

On Wednesday 18 March 2026, Alyth Common Good Fund Committee unanimously agreed to grant a lease of the former Alyth Museum building to the local charity.

Alyth Youth Partnership was given permission to lease the building for £1 for 25 years.

For feedback on a proposed lease of ground at Davies Park to KOSAG.

No responses were received.

Proceed with the proposed lease.

To help guide our decisions when proposing a Council budget for 2026/2027, we asked for your feedback on what is most important to you and your community. We wanted to know what you think about our priorities, and where we should invest for the future.

We also wanted to understand where you would prefer any budget savings to come from. Which service areas did you most want to see protected, and where were you willing, if necessary, to accept reductions (by stopping or reducing frequency), or by offsetting costs through charging to protect those services?

A total of 946 people responded to the consultation.

Perth and Kinross Council met on 4 March 2026 to decide on a budget for 2026/2207. What you told us in your consultation responses was fed back to elected members prior to the meeting, so they could consider the information you provided when making decisions. 

Overall, 52.96% of respondents opted for a lower than 9.5% increase in Council Tax.

Recurring themes in responses from residents included: 

• Improved road maintenance and safety
• Environment and cleanliness should improve
• Economic investment should support thriving communities.
• Criticism of poor street cleaning and green space maintenance
• Requests for guaranteed funding for libraries, which were were described as essential hubs for learning and social connection.
• Calls for increased school resources, mental health support, and attendance interventions.
• Investment in transport subsidies such as Free Bus Saturdays were questioned.

A Council Tax rise of 8.9% was approved for 2026/2027.

The agreed budget for 2026/2027 included the following investment: 

• Longer-term funding for roads, pavements and bridges with an additional £15 million over three years - the largest single investment of its kind ever made by the Council. This comes alongside doubling the resources for gully cleaning and ditch maintenance.
• Investing in a Greenspace Enhancement Squad to help improve public spaces by supporting planting and other environmental improvements. This comes alongside the rejection of proposed cuts to street cleaning. 
• £200,000 for a new City Centre Improvement Taskforce, which will deliver visible enhancements over the spring and summer. If this pilot project proves successful it could be rolled out to other towns in future years. 
• The Council Tax increase was largely driven by the pressure on health and social care, which is itself a result of our twin challenges of an ageing population and the additional costs of delivering care across a geographically dispersed area. Funding was included to undertake a feasibility study on what a care village approach might look like in Perth and Kinross.
• Accelerating work to develop the Eco-Innovation Park at Perth West for new and growing businesses, adding £750,000 for the Adapt Your Property initiative to help bring vacant buildings back into use, and reduce parking charges in multi-storey car parks to encourage more use of these and long-stay car parks and free up short stay spaces.
• The provision of community libraries was protected.
• Subsidised supporrt for free bus travel on the first Saturday of every month ended on 7 March 2026. Following the end of this pilot the learning from how this impacted on bus journeys in the area is being used to inform the further development of our public transport transformation project.
• £1.1 million to support local communities to deliver projects to tackle issues in their areas, including improving biodiversity and countering the effects of poverty and the cost of living.
• £306,000 for education and learning to support care-experienced and vulnerable young people, develop outdoor learning spaces for children with more complex additional support needs, and to accelerate repairs and maintenance in rural primary schools.
• £347,000 to support services for our most vulnerable people including RASAC, Women's Aid, The Neuk and community mental health support groups.
• £225,000 to maintain community halls and current opening hours for rural libraries, museums and the art gallery.
• £150,000 to establish a fund to provide grants and advice to owners of properties at risk of flooding in areas not covered by a Flood Risk Management Plan.
• £150,000 for inspections, repairs and maintenance of play park facilities and £100,000 to refurbish the Auchterarder multi-use games area (MUGA).

Council Leader, Councillor Eric Drysdale, said: "Residents across Perth and Kinross expect us to take responsible decisions that protect essential services and plan ahead for the future. This is a budget grounded in reality, shaped by what people have told us, and focused on meeting the needs of our communities. Our investment in care recognises the scale of the challenge we face, while our commitment to the public spaces and our road network reflects what matters most to households and businesses. This budget puts fairness, sustainability and community at its heart." 

We proposed three rent level options for 2026/27, and ask tenants to vote for their preference.

The options were:

• 6.5% rent increase
• 7.5% rent increase 
• 8.5% rent increase

Every tenant received information explaining each option, the services and capital improvements that could be delivered, and the potential impacts on service delivery and inflationary pressures being experienced by our Housing Revenue Account (HRA). 

A total of 2,782 tenants (33% of tenants) responded to the consultation, with the outcome as follows:

• Option 1 (6.5%) – 72.3%
• Option 2 (7.5%) – 21.0%
• Option 3 (8.5%) – 6.7%

On Wednesday 21 January 2026 Councillors agreed a 6.5% rent increase for  tenants for 2026/27.

The Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee agreed the rise in line with tenants' preferences. This means the average rent will go up £5.49 per week, giving an average rent of £90.01 per week based on 52 weeks.

Perth and Kinross will maintain the fourth lowest council rent in Scotland, £8.71 below the projected Scottish local authority average.

The increase will mean £300,000 is available to help bring empty properties back into use more quickly, £200,000 to improve the response time for repairs and provide £40,000 to pay for a handyperson to support older tenants in their homes.

The increase will also cover inflationary pressures on our Housing Revenue Account (HRA) - the ring-fenced pot of money paid by tenants' rents which is used to provide housing services.

Our Affordability Model shows 86% of tenants will be able to afford this increase but we understand many are struggling due to Cost of Living pressures. You can find out details of the support available on our website: https://bit.ly/4qvy3Qx

The rent increase will come into effect on Monday 6 April 2026.

In May 2024, the Scottish Parliament passed the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act. This Act gives local authorities the ability to charge a set percentage on overnight accommodation paid by visitors and tourists. 

Then, in February 2025, Perth and Kinross Council Economy and Infrastructure Committee agreed to start a period of public consultation after the launch of the Perthshire Tourism Strategy 2025 to 2030 to understand whether and how a visitor levy should be implemented in the area.

The results of this early engagement will help shape what any visitor levy would look like, and it is intended that any resulting 'scheme' will be put to the Council in December 2025 for a final decision on whether or not to introduce the levy and at what rate it should be set.

Any money raised from a potential visitor levy scheme would be ring-fenced to invest in local facilities and services that are used by visitors. It could be reinvested in the following key areas:

• facilities, infrastructure and services that are used by leisure and business visitors
• area promotion and marketing
• development of new tourism products
• attracting events and festivals
• improvements that enhance the overall visitor experience

Since residents and visitors use many of the same facilities, the visitor levy also has the potential to also benefit Perth and Kinross residents.

To ensure proposals are aligned as far as possible with the views and expectations of Perth and Kinross visitors, residents and businesses,  a public consultation was held between June to September 2025 as part of the early stage engagement. 

A total of 1,590 people responded to tell us their views. Thank you to everyone who took part. The results are currently being analysed.

It was anticipated to submit a draft Visitor Levy Scheme to the Council for consideration in December 2025.

However, due to the possible consideration of legislation changes by the Scottish Government, it is now proposed to submit a report in late Spring/Summer 2026.

The Scottish Government has indicated that additional regulations to the current legislation are scheduled to be lodged in early in 2026. As part of this process, they also indicated the Scottish Ministers were aware that some areas of Scotland were seeking greater flexibility in how the levy is applied and administered.

Consequently, they are actively considering extending powers to local authorities, including the option to introduce a single flat rate or tiered flat rate model alongside the existing percentage-based approach. 

Although the timeframe for any such considerations is not set and may extend beyond May 2026, it seems reasonable to wait for these considerations to be progressed further before finalising a draft Visitor Levy Scheme for Perth and Kinross. These changes may address some of challenges highlighted by residents, communities, and businesses during the early engagement process.

We asked you what your spending priorities were for Housing Services for 2026/27.

What you told us can be viewed in this video and the report below.

The results of the consultation were presented to tenants at the Tenant Summer Conference on 25 June 2025.

Workshop discussions were held to drill down into the results and further discuss the kind of services that tenants wanted to see.

All of this feedback will be used to produce a number of proposed rent level options for 2026/27, which will be voted on by tenants during November and December of 2025.

We gave tenants a choice of three rent level increases for 2025/26, alongside details of what each option would mean for investment in their housing services: 

• A 6% rent increase 
• A 6.5% rent increases
• A 7.5% rent increase 

A total of 3,055 tenants took part in the consultation - the highest ever total in the eight years that we have been running this annual consultation. 

64% of tenants chose a 6% rent increase for 2025/26.

25% chose a 6.5% rent increase, and 11% chose a 7.5% increase.

As a result, a 6% rent increase is being recommended for 2025/26 reflecting tenants’ views.

This proposal will be considered at a meeting of the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee on Wednesday 22nd January 2025.

The proposed changes would result in an average weekly rent increase of £4.78 per week, bringing the average weekly rent to £84.52. Perth and Kinross would maintain the 4th lowest council rent in Scotland, £7.87 below the projected Scottish local authority average.

A final decision on rent levels for 2025/26 will be made by the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee at a meeting on Wednesday 22nd January 2025.

We asked you to tell us what your priorities for rent spending were for 2025/26 across your Housing Services.

Over 1,200 of our tenants responded, which is a record amount for this annual consultation.

You can view the results of the consultation below.

The results were fed back to tenants who attended the Summer Tenants' Conference on June 27th 2024.

Further discussions were held at the event about the results and what services tenants want to see.

Your feedback will allow us to put together some rent level options for 2025/26 that will go out for consultation with tenants in November and December 2024. You will be able to vote for your preferred rent level during this consultation. 

The results on the rent level consultation will be included in a report to the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee in January 2025, where a final decision on 2025/26 rent levels will be made.

For your views on the principle of introducing a short-term let control area for Highland Perthshire and parts of Eastern Perthshire, and whether you had any suggestions on how to improve the draft guidance.

A wide range of views on the principle of a short-term let control area and on the draft guidance were received from individuals, businesses and organisations.

Several changes were made to the guidance following the consultation and the finalised guidance was approved by the Environment, Infrastructure and Economic Development Committee on 1 November 2023. This will now be used to help assess and determine planning applications for changes of use from a house or flat to a short-term let. A further report on the principle and evidence for designating a short-term let control area will go to the Committee early in 2024.