The Communities Housing Trust (CHT) is a registered charity and social enterprise focused on building sustainable rural communities across central and northern Scotland.
CHT is the leading organisation for facilitating community-led housing in Scotland.
Founded in 1998 as the Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust, CHT has earned a reputation for providing essential affordable housing and accompanying amenities such as shops, services and schools, which are all key to the sustainable social and economic wealth and wellbeing of our communities.
Taking a holistic view and a creative approach that looks beyond just housing, CHT works cooperatively with a wide range of public and private stakeholders to actively tackle repopulation and find viable solutions to the evolving challenges of community development in less well-served places.
Since our inception, we have worked at the forefront of the sector, dedicating ourselves to supporting communities and identifying inequalities. Since 1998 we have worked on more than 120 community-led projects, often in remote, rural areas, to provide over 1,000 crucial affordable homes and other amenities.
We are proud to have pioneered a range of housing tenure, financial and technical solutions (such as the Rural Housing Burden) that provide choice and support, giving groups confidence to grow their communities over time and in a sustainable manner. Part of this work frequently includes supporting communities to transfer land and assets into community ownership.
By providing affordable homes, shops, services, business opportunities, local skills training programs, we are building community wealth for the long term. We frequently work with local, rural trades and use local, sustainable materials where possible. This contributes not only towards net zero ambitions, but also helps to encourage a climate-friendly local circular economy - during construction, and into the future.