Building Rural Futures - Rural Housing Scotland Conference 2018

Building Rural Futures looks at how to secure the delivery of affordable rural housing and the future of our rural communities. In 2018 the community right to buy land for sustainable development comes into force. 2018 is also the Year of Young People. The sustainable development of rural Scotland requires affordable housing to enable young people to make their futures there.

The conference will feature a keynote speech by Roseanna Cunningham MSP (tbc), Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform. The Cabinet Secretary will outline her commitment to deliver land reform and how this can contribute to delivering affordable rural housing.

The conference will also welcome also welcome Hamish Trench, Chief Executive of the Scottish Land Commission who will discuss their work to reduce constraints to bringing land into productive use. Derek Logie will highlight the continuing underinvestment and undersupply of affordable housing in rural Scotland and Anna Evans will present the findings of research into the barriers to housing development in and suggest possible solutions.

The Islands Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament includes a requirement for government policy to be “island proofed”, Professor Sarah Skerratt will examine what this might mean to ensuring policy and investment fits with the needs of island and rural communities. The coming year will also see the Planning Bill and Richard Heggie from Urban Animation will highlight the opportunities for rural communities to deliver housing from it and other changes to planning policy.

Coming into the end of the second year of the Rural Housing Fund, Mike Staples will set out the development options for rural communities wishing to deliver their own affordable housing.

The conference will also feature a number of workshops including:

Collective Self Build | John Kinsley
In 2013 architect John Kinsley and a group of local people in Portobello got together to undertake an ambitious collective self build project. Four years later, the building is complete providing five flats within a new tenement. John will describe the process of building the group and the flats, and set out how this approach could work to deliver new rural housing.

Hutting | Angus Dodds and Cameron Anson
South West Mull & Iona Development are a community landowner, along with Savills they are examining how they can provide hutting locations on land which they own. The workshop will examine whether huts can provide an alternative holiday accommodation and thus prevent rural homes becoming holiday homes. Could huts, by providing an alternative solution pave the way for a ban on holiday homes.

In search of the ‘Young & Stuck’ in rural Scotland | Mandy Littlewood
“Young people in fragile areas tend to face higher average house prices, have lower average incomes and are more likely to be unable to form new households” This was the finding of research undertaken for HIE. Mandy Littlewood, one of the researchers, will highlight their findings and examine the implications for young people in rural Scotland.

Community Land Rights | Linda Gillespie, Community Ownership Support Service/ DTAS
A number of community land rights coming into effect in 2018. These alongside local place plans and community asset transfer provide opportunities for local communities to acquire land and assets as well as take on service delivery. Linda Gillespie form the Community Ownership Support Service helps us navigate these new rights.

Photo credit: Jean-Philippe Delberghe