Hansard

I welcome the members of the Vivarium Trust who are in the gallery for the debate: Hugh Hoffman, Margaret Farrell, Erika Topolewska and Senga Bate. I also thank my MSP colleagues who have stayed behind for it.

I am pleased that we are able to have the debate and to bring the work of the Vivarium Trust and the benefits of co-housing to the Scottish Parliament’s attention, following on from the trust’s exhibition earlier in the year.

The Vivarium Trust was set up in 2007 to promote co-housing through the provision of information and advice. The trust believes that co-housing offers a new and better way of living for older people. The model involves an affordable, self-managed form of living that combines the autonomy and privacy of individual households with a sense of community and mutual support.

The Vivarium Trust plans to establish a pilot project in North East Fife so that it can demonstrate how co-housing works in action, test the practicalities, and offer a new model of housing that it hopes will encourage others across Scotland and the United Kingdom. I am delighted to announce to Parliament that the Vivarium Trust is in the process of setting up a partnership with Kingdom Housing Association to establish its pilot project in the St Andrews area of North East Fife.

Members might ask what co-housing is. By way of background, I can tell them that the concept originated in Denmark. The first attempt to build a co-housing community started in the winter of 1964, when Danish architect Jan Gudmand-Høyer gathered a group of friends to discuss housing options. The concept found its feet in Denmark in the 1970s, and today there are many well-established co-housing projects there. There is also continued growth in new co-housing communities, and the concept has been incorporated into the master plans for many larger developments.

In the UK there are co-housing projects in Dorset and in Springhill, although they are not specifically for the over-50s. The concept has spread across the globe, with co-housing projects in the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and the United States of America.

That is no surprise, because each home is designed for the individual while existing in a community that contains communal facilities, based on the needs and preferences of members. The communal facilities are often in the form of a common house and include areas for leisure and socialising, office space, gardens and workshops.

Every co-housing community has different needs, but all co-housing communities have the same characteristics. First, there is the democratic process. Residents lead co-housing projects through the various stages of development and then manage the community through a democratic structure. All co-housing communities are designed for people. The community is designed by and for its residents, and although separate households exist they all share common goals.

The central tenet of co-housing is the shared facilities, often a common house that is the hub and heart of every co-housing community. Shared facilities differ between co-housing communities, and communities often open up their common space to the wider community.

The co-housing model offers a variety of benefits for people who choose to become involved in a project and it provides the opportunity to create an active community among its members. The Vivarium Trust was set up to demonstrate why co-housing is an important additional living model for older people. Research shows that many of the housing options that are currently available to older people do not meet their needs—and certainly do not meet the needs of an increasingly active older generation, whose members want to retain their independence for as long as possible.

In the current financial climate, it is understandable that more and more older people want to retain their independence and require affordable housing. The co-housing model offers older people the chance to minimise their living costs, through energy efficiency measures, ecological design and the sharing of facilities. Projects can maximise their income through social enterprise, for example by selling on surplus renewable energy that is generated.

It is important to be mindful of the benefits of co-housing for older people, which go beyond reducing living costs. Far too often, older people feel isolated from their community. Co-housing offers companionship and mutual support instead of isolation. It allows the individual to feel a sense of belonging and community and enables older people to have on-going, active responsibility for their circumstances, which promotes mental and physical wellbeing.

The Vivarium Trust is in the process of setting up a partnership with Kingdom Housing Association. The pilot project will be an intentional community for the over-50s, based on the co-housing model. The proposal is for 25 to 30 self-contained dwellings of different sizes, which will be purpose built or adapted on ecological principles. All the dwellings will be designed with ageing in mind. The whole project will be designed with sustainability in mind, in not just the economic but the social sense. That principle will permeate every stage, from the initial planning application to on-going living in the development.

The proposed amenities for the pilot include areas for socialising, a kitchen/dining area, a library, an office/computer room, a laundry room and gardens. There is the possibility that the project will have a small leisure facility.

In keeping with the principles of co-housing, members of the pilot project will be responsible for every stage of the development. The development will be a demonstration project, to show the general public, young and old, the practicalities and benefits of sustainable living in a co-housing community. The Vivarium Trust hopes that the project will demonstrate how co-housing can be applied in Scotland and the UK.

The Vivarium Trust has a committed group of approximately 20 members who are committed to becoming involved in the pilot project and are already looking forward to the design of the common house. Many other members are committed to various degrees, and the trust is continually looking to recruit new members. I hope that the debate will assist it with that goal.

The work that the trust is undertaking is clearly incredibly worthy, and it has been mindful of developing the project so that it will make a positive contribution to the Scottish Government’s national objectives. It is hoped that the pilot will provide an example of how housing can be developed to aid Scotland in becoming a healthier, fairer and greener society.

I am pleased to have been able to focus members’ attention on the trust and co-housing, and I welcome, and congratulate it on, its work, including the work that it has already undertaken to publicise the benefits of co-housing and in the project in North East Fife. I wish it every success in the future.

I thank members for their cross-party support to enable the debate to take place.

17:40