The Scottish Self Build Loan Fund has committed more than £5 million in loans to self-builders across Scotland to date.

This fund supports self-builders who are unable to obtain mainstream self-build mortgage finance.

£5.235 million has now been committed to 35 families and individuals in 12 Local Authority areas, to provide homes which wouldn’t otherwise have been possible. The loans are repaid when the homes have been completed by acquiring a standard residential mortgage, or the sale of the existing home.

The Loan Fund is administered on behalf of the Scottish Government by the Communities Housing Trust, an Inverness-based charity working closely with communities to provide affordable homes and community amenities.

Loans which have already been repaid are now being ‘recycled’ to finance additional builds, allowing even more people to build their own homes.

Homes are now complete or under construction in 12 Local Authority areas: Aberdeenshire, Argyll & Bute, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire, Falkirk, Highland, South Lanarkshire, Orkney, Perth & Kinross, Shetland, Stirling, and the Western Isles.
 
Earlier this year, the Scottish Government added another £2 million to the Loan Fund, providing a total of £6 million. The deadline for applications was also extended, and is open until 31 August 2022, with loans to be repaid by August 2023.

For more information about the Self Build Loan Fund, and to apply, please visit: https://www.chtrust.co.uk/scotland-self-build-loan-fund. 

Affordable housing developments in Aviemore and Gairloch won awards at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Scotland Housing Awards last night in Glasgow.

The developments were both led by the needs of the local communities, and undertaken by the Communities Housing Trust (CHT).

Held annually by CIH, the awards recognise and celebrate the creativity, passion, and innovation of housing organisations and individuals across the sector in Scotland.  

The Achtercairn site in Gairloch won the ‘Excellence in Regeneration’ award. The community-led project was undertaken by CHT in collaboration with many local and regional partners, and completed in 2020 during lockdown. It includes a mix of affordable housing, new shops and commercial space, and the GALE Centre which is Scotland’s first public building to be awarded Passivhaus status.

It is an example of a climate-friendly ‘20-Minute Neighbourhood’, where key services and amenities are a 20-minute walk, cycle or drive from home. It supports the local circular economy and wider area, while reducing the need to travel.
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The regeneration project has given the village a bustling new centre, while addressing some of the inequalities faced by rural communities, such as access to affordable housing, education opportunities, and shops and services. 

CHT were also awarded ‘Excellence in Housing Innovation’ for the Old Sawmill development at Rothiemurchus near Aviemore, in partnership with members of the local community and the Rothiemurchus Estate.

It provided a total of six self-build homes: four affordable plots for the local community that required no public subsidy, and two open-market plots, within the Cairngorms National Park.

The affordable self-build homes all have the Rural Housing Burden attached, a legal title condition which protects the property’s affordability in perpetuity and prioritises the local community in future sales, helping prevent holiday- and second-home ownership.

Details on both developments now feature in the CIH Scotland Good Practice Compendium 2021. 

Ronnie MacRae, CEO of Communities Housing Trust, said: “It’s brilliant to have two of our community-led projects in the Highlands recognised in this way, we’re extremely grateful to CIH for the two awards. It also shows what can be achieved through working collaboratively, and we’re glad to be able to show what’s possible for other rural communities in Scotland, as well as elsewhere in the UK. We’ve housed local families and keyworkers in energy-efficient, affordable homes built with sustainable materials. Both developments reduce rural inequalities and the need to travel, and support and promote the local circular economy, while meeting the objectives of the Local Authority and Scottish Government. Thank you and well done to our many partners, and thank you to our funder Nationwide Foundation for supporting community-led development in Scotland.”

Janet Miles, the managing director of Gairloch & Loch Ewe Action Forum (GALE), said: “Everyone at GALE is delighted that Gairloch has been recognised for its achievements in regeneration. We're very proud of the part GALE has played in this, having been driving community-led regeneration in the area for over 20 years now. Our vision was to create a community-owned, social and economic hub in the derelict centre of the village - a physical heart to the community. The development has enabled us to turn this vision into a reality.”

Commenting on the awards, Callum Chomczuk, CIH Scotland director, said: “I am so pleased we have been able to return to our in-person Scotland Housing Awards for 2021. The Awards and accompanying Good Practice Compendium is one of the most important activities for CIH Scotland undertakes each year.

“It promotes and highlights how housing professionals make a difference across Scotland and impact the wider public policy objectives that make a difference to all our lives. Never has this been more important as navigate our way through the twin challenges of an unprecedented global pandemic and climate emergency.
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“My congratulations to all our winners but also all our nominees. The standard of application was as ever incredibly high and a testament to the innovation and delivery that our profession should be proud of.”

Business leaders, public sector and community representatives came together today to discuss the housing crisis in Badenoch & Strathspey with Kate Forbes, Highland MSP who is also Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy and Shona Robison, MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government.  

The summit at Macdonald Aviemore Resort and led by the Cairngorms Business Partnership brought together some of the significant employers in the area and leaders from Highland Council, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Highland Housing Alliance, Communities Housing Trust, Government Officials, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and representatives of the local community.  

The summit discussed work underway to help people, who want to live in, work in and care for the area, find homes. Ms Robison, who opened the summit, commented:  

“Good quality, affordable housing is essential to help attract and retain people in Scotland’s remote and rural communities. As part of our £3.4 billion Affordable Housing Supply Programme we have delivered more than 6,000 affordable homes in rural and island communities between 2016-17 and 2020/21. Building on this, we are now working to deliver 110,000 affordable homes across Scotland by 2032, of which 10% will be in our remote, rural and island communities. This will be backed by a Remote, Rural & Islands Housing Action Plan – we now want to engage with community organisations and those in the public and private sector to ensure it delivers for people in these areas.”  

The results of a recent business housing demand survey, conducted by 56 Degree insight, were released at the summit. The results found that:

• two in three businesses state the lack of affordable housing has inhibited their ability to recruit new staff (68%) 
• 39% indicated that this was having a ‘major impact’ on their business 
• over half of the businesses (59%) expected the issues to worsen if no action was taken 
• The meeting heard that, right now, there are 180 vacancies in Badenoch and Strathspey listed on the Indeed website alone. Survey results suggest that around 50 of these will not be filled due to a shortage of suitable homes.  

The survey was commissioned by Highland Council and the Cairngorms Business Partnership. The Scottish Government, the National Park Authority and the Highland Council have undertaken to take the results into account when assessing housing needs analysis for Badenoch and Strathspey and therefore funding and allocations for public sector supported housing.  

The summit also discussed an innovative scheme being led by the Cairngorms Business Partnership (CBP) to improve the prospects for local employees looking to rent homes in Badenoch and Strathspey. In a pilot partnership with Highland Council and the Highland Housing Alliance (HHA,) with support from Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the CBP will establish a not for profit, business led, organisation that will offer rent void guarantees to HHA and in return properties will be allocated based on local employment needs. The initial pilot for 4 homes in Aviemore is expected to be available for occupation in summer 2022.

Commenting on the scheme, Mark Tate, chief executive of the Cairngorms Business Partnership, said:  

“The lack of affordable homes for people who want to work in, live in and care for the National Park, has long been a problem. This past summer it has severely impacted business recovery. This pilot clearly demonstrates that businesses are prepared to make a contribution to help alleviate the problem and ensure new mid-market rent housing is available for people working locally. We very much see all of the work we are discussing here today as work that we can replicate across the National Park and can be useful for many rural communities beyond that.”  

Convener of Highland Council, local councillor and Aviemore resident, Bill Lobban added:  

“The biggest issue facing our community is the provision of affordable housing. Our economy is almost exclusively tourism based so we do need accommodation for tourists but we also desperately need homes for the local people who live and work here many of whom serve the tourists who come here in their droves. There has to be a balance and currently that balance has shifted far too far away from the provision of affordable housing and we must redress that balance as a matter of urgency.”  

Finally the summit heard from the Communities Housing Trust who have been commissioned by the CBP with support from HIE, about a longer term ambition to develop a community of around 80 homes from short term seasonal worker accommodation to homes for people to build, buy, buy to rent and rent of varying sizes built around a community of local people; fitting for a National Park delivering economic, community and environmental sustainability.  

This scheme has the ambition of keeping at least 80% of those homes for local employees and people who want to live, work and care for the area in perpetuity.  

There then followed a positive discussion about how these schemes can be improved further and a commitment from all parties to build on these solutions in a way that allows them to be scaled and replicated across the National Park and further.  

Xander McDade, Convener of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, said:  

“The availability of affordable housing is an issue of profound importance to the communities and businesses of the National Park, something which is again coming across loud and clear from our consultation on the next Park Partnership Plan. Having recently increased the affordable housing requirement to 45% in key settlements, we welcome today’s announcements and look forward to working with partners on substantially increasing affordable housing as set out in the draft National Park Partnership Plan.”  

Closing the meeting Ms Forbes commented:  

“I am delighted that the Housing Minister, Shona Robison, is spending time with businesses to seek to resolve this major issue.  
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“There are tools at our disposal, in terms of building and securing more housing, but we need to make sure it is the right kind of housing for those who are most in need.”  ​

The regeneration of the Achtercairn site in Gairloch, north west Highlands, has won ‘Best Regeneration Project – Rural & Suburban’ at the Inside Housing Development Awards in London yesterday.

The awards celebrate the very best residential developments across the UK, and recognise innovation in striving for more sustainable and net zero solutions.

The regeneration of Achtercairn, led by the needs of the community and undertaken by the Communities Housing Trust (CHT), was completed in 2020 during lockdown. It includes a mix of affordable housing, new shops and commercial space, and the GALE Centre which is Scotland’s first public building to be awarded Passivhaus status.

​The development is an example of a climate-friendly ‘20-Minute Neighbourhood’, where key services and amenities are a 20-minute walk, cycle or drive from home. It supports the local circular economy and wider area, while reducing the need to travel. 

The regeneration project has given the village a bustling new centre, while addressing some of the inequalities faced by rural communities, such as access to affordable housing, education opportunities, and shops and services.

The project was made possible with support from the Scottish Government through funding and flexible policies that are empowering many more communities to follow Gairloch’s example. The Highland Council’s support for a wide range of affordable housing tenures that provide choice to communities and those in housing need was also crucial. Other key partners include Albyn Housing Society, Highlands & Islands Enterprise, Gairloch Estate, the Ministry Of Defence, the Gairloch & Loch Ewe Action Forum (GALE), and many others within the community.

A former brownfield site in the centre of Gairloch with a derelict hotel, Achtercairn was an eyesore for the village which is on the North Coast 500 route popular with tourists. In addition, the number of pupils in the primary school was dropping as families struggled to find suitable accommodation locally.

Working closely with the Gairloch community, CHT acquired several pieces of land and brought together many partners to provide 25 affordable homes of five different tenures with three housing providers; the GALE Centre with offices, Tourist Information Hub, community shop and café, and classroom for learning of all ages. The GALE Centre receives over 40,000 visitors per year and supports 100 people locally by selling their crafts and produce. Also on site is the Gairloch Farm Shop, vet clinic, and a new Air Training Corps facility providing skills and education opportunities.

Ronnie MacRae, CEO of Communities Housing Trust, said: “It’s great to be recognised for this community-led development, showing a 20-Minute Neighbourhood in practice, particularly during the week of COP26. The development has provided a new village centre with a low-energy Passivhaus as the focal point, as well as housing local families and keyworkers in energy-efficient homes built with sustainable materials. It’s reducing rural inequalities and need to travel, and is supporting and promoting the local circular economy.

“All of these factors work towards addressing the climate crisis, and we’re glad to be able to show what’s possible for other rural communities in Scotland, as well as elsewhere in the UK. We’d like to congratulate all other finalists in the category, and thank IHDA for the award. Finally, a thank you to our funder the Nationwide Foundation for enabling us to spread this work nationally, and to all our partners in Gairloch who worked tirelessly to make this a reality, for the future of their village.”

Janet Miles, the managing director of Gairloch & Loch Ewe Action Forum (GALE), said: “Everyone at GALE is delighted that Gairloch has received this award and been recognised for its achievements in regeneration. We're very proud of the part GALE has played in this, having been driving community-led regeneration in the area for over 20 years now. Our vision was to create a community-owned, social and economic hub in the derelict centre of the village - a physical heart to the community. The development has enabled us to turn this vision into a reality.”

Wendy Watson, owner of Gairloch Farm Shop, said: “The school roll is now a bit higher, we have more people in our local school. The numbers were declining.

​“Having this little area that’s now been developed, it stops people going straight out the village… ultimately the housing and everything else that’s here, I would say the difference is phenomenal to our village.”

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> Read more about how the development is helping to address the climate crisis

> Read more about the Achtercairn project