Hansard

I am pleased to bring this debate to the chamber and to have the opportunity to provide an update on our approach to delivering the right homes in the right places for our rural and island communities. Providing access to high-quality homes that are affordable and meet the needs of people in the places where they want to be is central to the Scottish Government’s ambitions and is critical to supporting the First Minister’s three overarching and defining missions of equality, opportunity and community.

Housing of the right type, in the right place, can have a powerful and generational impact. It supports people to access the housing that they need, enables young people to stay in the communities in which they grew up and supports local businesses to retain and attract employees.

Our long-term housing strategy, “Housing to 2040”, has at its core our ambition for everyone to have a safe and high-quality home that is affordable and meets their needs, in the place where they want to be. That applies as much to rural and island areas as it does to urban areas.

Following the publication of “Housing to 2040”, we committed as part of the Bute house agreement to developing a rural and islands housing action plan. Over the summer, I met organisations including the Scottish Land Commission, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise and the Scottish Council for Development and Industry. I thank them for their input and I thank everyone who participated for sharing their views. The groups and individuals who are part of rural and island communities know what works and what does not and have seen at first hand the difference that the right home in the right place makes. They have all shaped the content of our plan.

When I met some of those organisations, a key issue was the challenges of Brexit. It would be remiss of me not to talk about that, as it was mentioned on numerous occasions. We know that there are challenges ahead. Years of the United Kingdom Government’s economic mismanagement, coupled with a hard Brexit, have had a long-lasting and devastating impact on our rural and island communities. However, that will not stop our ambition, which is set out in the plan, and nor will it blemish our record of delivering thousands of affordable homes in rural and island areas.

The “Rural & Islands Housing Action Plan” provides a vital opportunity to take forward key actions to support housing and local economies and to help to accelerate inclusive economic growth. We are making available £3.5 billion over this session of Parliament to support delivery of 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, 70 per cent of which will be for social rent and 10 per cent of which will be in our rural and island areas. As part of our £752 million programme this year, we have also committed to invest £60 million in a national acquisition plan to help to increase the pace of delivering affordable homes.

A lot of good work has already been achieved through joint working and co-operation, which is delivering good housing outcomes for rural and island communities. Since 2016, the Government has supported the delivery of more than 10,000 affordable homes across our rural and island areas. During the summer, I visited housing projects in Gairloch, Fort Augustus, Shetland and Kelso and yesterday I visited a new affordable homes development in Guildtown, Perthshire, and I have heard first hand about the difference that those affordable homes have made to local communities.

Let me share some examples of how strong collaborative working has delivered more homes for our rural and island communities. Working with North Ayrshire Council, we have delivered the first new council homes on Arran for more than 20 years with 34 affordable homes in Brodick. North Ayrshire Council has let some of the homes to key workers, which helps them to live and work in the local area.

Working with Argyll and Bute Council and the Link Group, we have contributed to the delivery of a new development of more than 300 affordable homes in Dunbeg. All the homes have air-source heat pumps to provide affordable energy and to tackle fuel poverty in an off-grid area.

I have also seen first hand the 12 homes that the local community company in Fort Augustus has completed. The company is looking to deliver more community-led homes. I will touch on that later. I heard directly from a tenant what the homes meant to him: they allowed him to stay in his own home in his local community.

We have also supported Eildon Housing Association to deliver 57 energy-efficient affordable homes in Chirnside in the Scottish Borders.

Through our affordable housing supply programme, our affordable housing investment benchmark levels recognise the differential in costs to deliver affordable housing in rural and island locations, as opposed to city and urban areas. We are trying to be as flexible as possible.