The Scottish Government is being asked to consider the case for a nation-wide Scottish rural housing enablers programme to help demonstrate hidden housing needs and unlock new housing supply in rural areas.
Housing and homelessness charity Shelter Scotland is urging the Government to invest in rural housing workers to act as “local brokers” of housing solutions by bringing together communities with expressed housing needs and potential providers of solutions such as landowners, housing associations and public bodies.
In addition, because enablers work with communities to help them identify housing needs for themselves, it argues that they are essential to the process of building support for new development and heading off opposition.
While Shelter said that enablers have shown themselves to be effective “catalysts” for the assessment of housing needs and have a “crucial role” to play in increasing affordable housing opportunities, it said that in comparison to other parts of the UK, the work of rural enablers in Scotland is “fragmented, patchy in coverage, inconsistently funded and lacks any central support”.
Archie Stoddart, director of Shelter Scotland, said that the shortage of affordable housing is “squeezing the very life out of rural communities”.
“With a lack of social rented homes, house prices through the roof and very high numbers of second homes, it is a wonder some villages are staying alive at all. A lack of good quality affordable homes for rent is squeezing the very life out of rural communities as people are forced to move away.
“Problems in rural areas are complex but one of the best solutions is to build more affordable homes for rent. In some places, just a few houses can make the difference between the local school and the shop staying open. That’s why we believe Scotland needs more homes and having people working on the ground in rural communities can help to do this.”
He continued: “In rural areas in particular, the Scottish Government must look seriously at ways to keep these communities alive. One such way is to invest in rural housing workers, to help local people and community groups, find out the problems and come up with ways of building homes.”
Shelter, which has run an enablers project in Dumfries and Galloway for six years, said that the cost of a national programme in Scotland would be around £500,000-£600,000 per year, which it suggested could be split 75:25 by the Scottish Government and local authorities.
“We know this kind of approach works after running such a scheme in Dumfries and Galloway for six years. We’ll put the case to Scottish ministers for a rural housing enablers programme and we urge the Government to pick it up as a serious way to bring more homes to rural communities up and down Scotland. We know it works,” added Stoddart.
The report will be submitted to Scottish ministers through the next meeting of the Housing Supply Task Force on 27 November.
No one has commented on this article. |
