BUSINESS leaders, public sector representatives and community representatives in Badenoch and Strathspey came together yesterday to discuss the area’s housing crisis with Kate Forbes and Shona Robison.
The summit, held at Macdonald Aviemore Resort and led by the Cairngorms Business Partnership, brought together some of the area’s significant employers, leaders from Highland Council, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Highland Housing Alliance, Communities Housing Trust, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and representatives for the local community. It discussed work under way to help people – who want to live in, work in and care for the area – to find homes.
Robison, who opened the summit, said: “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 6000 affordable homes in rural and island communities between 2016-17 and 2020/21.
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"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 (68%) state the lack of affordable housing has inhibited their ability to recruit new staff, while 39% indicated that this was having a “major impact” on their business.
More than 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 results are to be taken 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 organisation that will offer rent void guarantees to HHA – in return, properties will be allocated based on local employment needs.
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The initial pilot for four homes in Aviemore is expected to be available for occupation in summer 2022.
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.”
The summit also 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. 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.
Closing the meeting, Forbes said: “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.”
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