The housing crisis is having an increasingly worrying effect across sectors in rural Scotland. Good employment opportunities already exist in many remote and rural areas, particularly with the post-pandemic increase in ‘work from home’ opportunities, but this is of little value if there is nowhere for workers to live. A recent survey on the Islecontinue reading
Rural Housing Scotland Archives
Scottish Government home buyer schemes not fit for purpose in remote rural and island Scotland
National home ownership support schemes often fail to meet their full potential in rural and island areas as they do not recognise that the circumstances surrounding housing are different to those in urban areas. Open Market Shared Equity (OMSE) is one such scheme. It helps eligible buyers, on low to moderate incomes, buy a homecontinue reading
Why working to tackle the rural housing crisis matters to me: Interview with Kirsty Glover
Our newest team member and recent graduate, Kirsty Glover, tells us about her passion for rural issues which led to her dissertation comparing rural depopulation in northern Spain and the Scottish Highlands. As a resident of Applecross, Kirsty also shares her thoughts on what better rural housing would mean to communities like hers and explorescontinue reading
Plans submitted for new community-led homes in Cairngorms National Park
A planning application has been submitted for 15 new affordable homes in the village of Braemar, Aberdeenshire. The proposal has been developed as a result of extensive community consultation and assessment of local housing need and includes 1-bed, 2-bed and 3-bed homes as well as wheelchair accessible flats. The application was made following a publiccontinue reading
Building Our Rural Future manifesto launched
Today we are launching our Building Our Rural Future manifesto, laying out ten actions we believe politicians and policy makers need to take to enable affordable rural housing and help our rural communities thrive. In preparation for the 2021 Holyrood elections, and coming ahead of this week’s debate in the Scottish Parliament around concerns overcontinue reading
Rural Housing Summit Announced for 2021
A new online summit, bringing together individuals, organisations and businesses working to tackle the rural housing crisis across the UK and beyond, has been announced for 2021. The Rural Housing Summit will use examples of on-the-ground work, policy and practical support for sustainable housing development in rural areas across the globe to showcase good practice,continue reading
World Habitat Day: Housing For All – A Better *Rural* Future
The theme for the United Nations World Habitat Day 2020 is Housing for All: A Better Urban Future. We wholeheartedly agree that housing is a human right and a catalyst for all other fundamental rights. We’ve just tweaked the theme a wee bit to argue that Housing for All as vital to a Better Ruralcontinue reading
Attention to local needs at the heart of social housing success
Calum Macaulay worked in housing associations and co-operatives for 37 years, latterly as Housing Manager and then Chief Executive for the largest housing association in the Highlands – Albyn Housing. He was also one of the founders of what is now Highland Homeless Trust and of TIGHRA – a tenant participation organisation for the Highlands, Islandscontinue reading
Fuel Poverty and Rural Homes
Marjan van de Weg is the senior data consultant with Changeworks, Scotland’s leading environmental charity delivering solutions for low carbon living. She recently worked with Citizens Advice Scotland on the ’Mind the Fuel Poverty Gap’ report, which explored how the eligibility for the Warm Home Discount scheme fits with the Scottish Government’s recently amended fuelcontinue reading
Cohousing as a solution to housing need in rural communities
Cohousing is an underexplored tool in tackling the rural housing crisis, and one which we believe more communities should be encouraged to investigate. With this in we have invited Chris Coates, founder member of Lancaster Cohousing and board member of the UK Cohousing Network, to talk through the practicalities of developing cohousing projects in acontinue reading