Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2024
The funding for rural homes remains unchanged, and that is vital.
Our demand-led rural and islands housing fund has now become a recognised feature of the affordable housing supply programme, and it continues to play a critical role in helping community organisations and others to deliver affordable homes.
In October, we published a rural and islands housing action plan. Many of the actions in that plan seek to address the key challenges and put in place systems and support for the delivery of the right homes in the right places, so that our rural and island communities can thrive.
Frequently, it is communities themselves that are leading the way in building new housing stock or freeing up and refurbishing existing stock so that it meets local needs. My colleague Paul McLennan, the Minister for Housing, is looking forward to attending Rural Housing Scotland’s conference, where he will highlight the importance of community-led housing in our broader approach to delivering more homes in rural and island communities.
Transport was identified as another important issue. Youth delegates asked for sustainable transport that works for everyone, and I could not agree more about the importance that that has for our rural and island communities. I know that many of the youth delegates participated in the Scottish rural and islands transport community workshop at the rural parliament, and I am looking forward to seeing the specific recommendations that came from that, as well as the views on a rural and island mobility plan.
I recognise the impact that recent disruptions have had on rural and island communities, and I underline our commitment to investing in ferry services and rural transport. Our national transport strategy is for all of Scotland, reflecting the different transport needs of island, rural and urban communities. Our planned islands connectivity plan will replace the ferries plan, and it will be broader in scope, taking into account aviation, ferries and fixed links, as well as onward and connecting travel.
On mental health and wellbeing, youth delegates called for empathetic interventions and recognition of social support spaces, as well as tailored solutions to specific age groups. All those are key components of the Scottish Government’s new mental health and wellbeing strategy, which was published in June last year.