Rural and islands housing: action plan

Supporting Community-Led Development

Community-led local development can be key to supporting thriving, resilient rural communities. The Community-Led Local Development network of Local Action Groups work across Scotland’s rural and island areas to tackle their own, local challenges and opportunities by building knowledge and skills, supporting new ideas and encouraging co-operation. Where there is land or buildings of particular significance these can be brought together alongside community aspirations into a Local Place Plan. In turn, once registered, Local Place Plans are a means of informing the preparation of the Local Development Plan for the area.

Community-Led Housing

Community-led housing plays an important role in our broad approach to deliver more affordable homes in our remote, rural and island communities and provides an opportunity for communities to bring forward their own housing where they choose to do so. However, it is not just about housing, enhancing local living through associated commercial and community uses alongside housing is key to the resilience and sustainability of communities over the long term.

Community-led housing, is a broad and encompassing term for housing initiated, managed and owned by the community. While the focus is mostly on the provision of affordable homes, community led homes can be across a range of tenures including social rent equivalent, mid-market rent, private rent or low-cost home ownership.

Projects can be purely housing focussed or be taken forward alongside other community or commercial investment, providing a potential income stream to support ongoing costs such as maintenance. It can involve the re-use or redevelopment of existing buildings or new build, stand-alone homes or homes designed around community living concepts, potentially with workspaces, allotments or other features aimed at supporting greater community cohesion and sustainability. The organisational and management structures can also vary with some groups wishing to come together in co-operative structures with or without shared spaces, while others opt for more traditional group structures.

While the motivating concept of community-led housing is therefore often similar, the design, funding and delivery path can vary and is likely to be specific to the circumstances, objectives and nature of each project.

Communities across remote, rural and island areas are actively engaged in taking forward projects to deliver the housing they need, often supported by the Rural and Islands Housing Fund. The fund is playing a critical role in supporting community organisations and others, not able to access the mainstream affordable housing programme, to deliver the affordable homes their communities need. This can include the delivery of homes for affordable rent or sale including through new build, refurbishment or of empty homes or conversion of non-residential buildings. It can also include testing innovative and practical housing initiatives which deliver replicable solutions to the challenging aspects of affordable rural housing supply which could include through models such as inter-generational living and co-housing structures.

West Whins and North Whins, The Park Ecovillage – Findhorn, Moray

The Park Ecovillage in Findhorn, Moray has been in existence for over 60 years and includes over 100 ecologically designed homes with around 30 other buildings, most of which have a community function. In addition to affordable housing at the settlement the remainder of the properties are mostly privately owned homes and a small number of commercial buildings such as a shop and offices for the numerous social enterprises that co-exist at the village.

The Park Ecovillage Trust developed an affordable housing project for six flats, designed to a high eco-specification, with low running costs at their West Whins site. The project received £130,000 from the Rural and Islands Housing Fund and had private loan funding from members of the community. The homes were completed in 2017 with the project shortlisted in the SURF Awards for best practice in community regeneration housing category in 2018.

Following the success of the West Whins project, The Park Ecovillage Trust developed a second project, this time at their North Whins site, and delivered eight homes with the assistance of £532,592 funding from the Rural and Islands Housing Fund and commercial loan funding with the eight homes for affordable rent completed in summer 2022.

Enabling Communities to Deliver More Homes

Communities are not just residents, they include all those that live, work, and have a long-term interest in the area, including employers, landowners and others. The introduction of the Rural and Islands Housing Fund in 2016 has changed the landscape of rural housing delivery. The Scottish Government remains committed to the continuation of the Rural and Islands Housing Fund, making up to £30 million available this parliamentary term to support deliverable projects.

The Rural and Islands Housing Fund can work alongside other mechanisms such as the Scottish Land Fund, to help realise the housing ambitions of communities. The Scottish Land Fund offers grants of up to £1 million to help communities take ownership of the land and buildings as well as practical support to develop projects. While the Scottish Land Fund is not a specific housing fund, it can provide valuable support to allow communities to identify and access land to bring forward their housing ambitions. Understanding local need for housing and identifying land to deliver these homes are the first critical steps in the development of housing plans, and as such there are benefits to ensuring that the Scottish Land Fund and the Rural and Islands Housing Fund continue to work together to support communities. It is therefore vital that communities at an early stage undertake a local housing need assessment, there is early engagement between funders, local authorities and other local affordable housing providers on the likely delivery potential of projects as well as a shared understanding of what feasibility work is required.

Stracathro Estates – Inchbare, Angus

Stracathro Estates was one of the first private estates to approach the Rural and Islands Housing Fund for assistance. Approved in June 2020 with £533,000 in grant funding, Stracathro Estates commenced development of 6 homes for affordable rent at Inchbare. The homes were completed in October 2021. Following a campaign to keep the local primary school open, the lettings policy prioritised families with children of pre-school or school age.

Action

We will strengthen operational links between the Scottish Land Fund and the Rural and Islands Housing Fund to more closely align decision making for communities.

We will review the Rural and Islands Housing Fund to allow feasibility funds to be released earlier, where required, to support local housing assessments that can help inform applications to the Scottish Land Fund.

Rural Housing and Support

When taking forward housing development, communities need to consider a range of important matters. These include operational issues such as the structure of the organisation, the resource and skills available to them including the potential benefit of working with a delivery partner. Longer term, communities will also want to give consideration to how properties will be maintained and managed and the resource required to do this.

We know there are a range of third sector housing organisations who provide support to rural and island communities in terms of advice and facilitation skills. These include Development Trust Association Scotland and Rural Housing Scotland, providing support to their members, sharing best practice and advocating for rural communities. In the Western Isles, Tighean Innse Gall plays a key role in providing local housing services from property management and letting, to a care and repair service and heat and energy support and advice. Working closely with Hebridean Housing Partnership, the registered social landlord for the area, Tighean Innse Gall acts on the behalf of the Scottish Government to manage the resale of low-cost home ownership properties.

Communities Housing Trust and South of Scotland Community Housing operate across Scotland and provide direct support and advice to communities and other organisations seeking to take forward housing projects, including access to Scottish Land Fund and Rural and Islands Housing Fund. The important role of these organisations was emphasised through our engagement, with many individuals and organisations highlighting not only the role they can play in supporting delivery but in working locally to join up across communities and organisations.

The Scottish Government would like to see community-led development in remote, rural and island areas evolve further to become more self-sustaining over time. We recognise that this may take time to reach and will require support to get there. We want to ensure that there is access to the support and advice that communities need, and that effort is focussed on progressing developments through to delivery. The Scottish Government has agreed a package of support, co-funded with Nationwide Foundation, of up to £960,000 over the period 2023-24 – 2025-26 to support the staff capacity and expertise for Communities Housing Trust and South of Scotland Community Housing to bring forward projects in their existing pipeline to delivery while supporting the development of new projects.

Action

We are providing a package of financial support, co-funded with Nationwide Foundation, of up to £960,000 over the period 2023-24 - 2025-26 to support the staff capacity and expertise across Communities Housing Trust and South of Scotland Community Housing to progress deliverable projects in their pipelines.

Strengthening the Role of Community-Led Housing

From our engagement, we identified varying levels of engagement of local authorities in supporting community-led development. The role of the local authority in supporting and co-ordinating affordable housing delivery across their area is key. It is therefore important that local authorities take an active role in supporting community-led housing. This could include engaging early on feasibility and constraints, bringing together communities and other housing providers around shared delivery priorities as well as prioritising and monitoring progress alongside other affordable housing delivery programmes.

Staffin, Skye

Staffin is a small crofting community on the Isle of Skye which has a large proportion of Gaelic speakers as residents. A lack of permanent all-year round employment and affordable housing, an ageing and falling population and the migration of young people in search of work elsewhere are just some of the major challenges – 40 residents left in just four years.

In partnership with the Staffin Community Trust/Urras an Taobh Siar, the Communities Housing Trust project-managed a mixed development of six affordable homes, two commercial units for rent including workshop space, and a new health centre for NHS Highland, to replace the existing building which is unfit for purpose. The new community-owned health centre will be leased to the NHS, returning income to the community and it is planned that the former NHS building will be renovated into a further affordable home for the community.

The build began in August 2020 and the homes are a mix of social rent through Lochalsh & Skye Housing Association, community rent through Staffin Community Trust, and discounted sale through the Communities Housing Trust. The project received £381,426 funding from the Rural and Islands Housing Fund and residents moved into their new homes in February 2022.

The development has received several awards, including the Housing & Regeneration award at Scotland’s Regeneration Forum 2022, the Community Contribution award at the Scottish Home Awards 2022, the Excellence in Regeneration & Sustainability award at the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland’s Housing Awards 2022, and the Best Project Overall at the Highlands & Islands Architectural Association Awards 2022.

Action

We will refresh Local Housing Strategy and Strategic Housing Investment Plan guidance in 2024 to include a focus on community-led housing. This will encourage stronger engagement at a local level between local authorities, registered social landlords, rural housing enablers and communities and require projects supported to be brought forward under the Rural and Islands Housing Fund to be identified in Strategic Housing Investment Plans.

Assessing Housing Need in Remote, Rural and Island Areas

Housing Need and Demand Assessments are undertaken by housing and planning authorities generally every five years as part of the Local Housing Strategy process and to also inform Local Development Plans. Housing and planning authorities can augment their Housing Need and Demand Assessments with robust additional data and research where this exists. The Housing Need and Demand Assessment sets out long-term housing requirements, including the likely requirement for new homes as well as trends in affordability and tenure.

A Housing Need and Demand Assessment is used by local authorities to inform housing-related policy responses through the Local Housing Strategy and Strategic Housing Investment Plans. While the Scottish Government considers that Housing Need and Demand Assessments remain fit for purpose, it also recognises for rural and island communities that it may not provide the granular level of information that may be required to support local housing decisions such as what type, size and tenure of homes may be required. This issue is also reflected in the National Islands Plan.

The development of a local housing needs assessment will therefore be a key first step for communities and others considering the current and future housing requirements of their area as well as a mechanism for engaging the broader community. A number of approaches already exist to support this work. Argyll and Bute council for example has a Community Housing Assessment toolkit which uses a household questionnaire to understand the housing needs of communities whereas rural housing enablers, routinely undertake local housing needs assessments for communities to support housing projects and funding applications. We will work with local authorities, communities and rural enablers to consider current and best practice approaches to local housing assessments including sources of information to support this process.

Action

We will develop guidance to support communities, local authorities and others to undertake local housing assessments based on best practice and robust methodology.