ARIANE BURGESS: Challenges of rural housing can be faced with expert help
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Holyrood Notebook by Ariane Burgess
In a recent conversation about the north coast of Scotland, I was reminded that there were once people settled in all the straths.
Today communities hold on and do what they can to tackle the ongoing crisis of population loss. Several factors force people to leave.
They have a job but can't find a place to live, they have a place to live but can't find a job, or they have a house and a job but can't afford childcare so they can go to work.
Where to start in tackling these issues?
From discussions with many communities, affordable housing provision is the key to a community's success.
There's nothing more comforting than being able to live in a home that is affordable, secure and warm. It's essential for good mental health and being able to enjoy life and work.
But homes aren't available to everyone, and too many people are homeless. I was surprised to learn that homelessness extends to people who can't find a home in the community where they want to live.
Some people end up leaving, not by choice, and go on to be homeless in our cities.
Several years ago, the news headlines highlighted that Inverness was the fastest-growing city in Europe.
It may be celebrated as a sign of a growing economy. But with growth comes challenges, including isolating urban sprawl and the loss of the heart in the city centre.
Right now, with the challenges of rural depopulation, we urgently need a thousand homes – a few in villages across the Highlands as a priority.
The challenges of building a few houses in our rural and island communities won't be picked up by volume house builders who rely on a business model that requires building many houses.
Communities are taking the job on because building two, four or nine houses will keep the primary school open and ensure their villages thrive.
The game changers for this effort are the Scottish Land Fund, which supports communities in buying land local to them where possible, and the Rural and Island Housing Fund, which provides them with a portion of the funds required to build the houses.
Building housing is a big task for community organisations that do this infrequently. There's considerable preparation, which often means volunteer time for those on the organisation's board.
Talking with communities who are building housing, I've learned that they are developing more than housing. It's about place-making and community wealth building. Shops, office space and even a health centre have been included in projects.
Community housing enablers play a crucial part in ensuring these projects take place. These organisations support communities through as much of the process as a community needs. Communities Housing Trust (CHT) works in the Highlands and Islands in this capacity.
Almost every community I've talked with has, at some point, had input from CHT.
An essential part of CHT's work is at the initial project stage, where they support communities to develop their confidence and capacity to make significant financial and long-term project development commitments.
This stage is critical to ensuring that the people involved know what they're taking on, as much as is possible, in anything not done before.
That's why the Scottish Greens pushed for core funding for community housing enablers to be included in the Bute House Agreement with the Scottish Government and secured a commitment to deliver in this calendar year.
Getting rural housing right is a step in the right direction to seeing rural communities thrive.
- Ariane Burgess is a Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands.
