Affordable Housing

The provision of affordable housing that is eco-friendly has long been a concern within our community. There is also much interest in co-housing, and in co-operative ownership models.

In common with many rural areas of Scotland the Findhorn peninsula suffers from a significant shortage of affordable housing both to buy and to let.

In 2004, with the assistance of the Rural Housing Service and Development Trusts Association Scotland we conducted a survey of the local area to evaluate the level of housing need.

In 2006 the Ekopia Rules were amended to allow us to become registered as a 'rural housing body' with the Scottish Government.

With the further assistance of Co-operative Development Scotland we have also helped to create and turn into practical reality a new model for housing co-operatives, through the following projects::

Duneland

Following a generous offer from Duneland Ltd. and the excellent fundraising work of the "Full Spectrum Initiative" a new opportunity to support community-owned affordable housing has emerged, see this Introduction and Application Form (pdf) for details.

This project also requires the formal support of the Moray Council housing department and we are delighted that this has now been provided.

In a nutshell, Duneland can make available four or more housing units at the East Whins cluster. This will involve both 2 bedroom flats and 2 or 3 bedroom houses at a market value (averaged) of about £175,000 for both rentals and shared ownership.

This will be paid for by:

• Zero interest loans. Over £100,000 has been secured so far.
  
• Grants and donations. I am pleased to say that Full Spectrum have already raised over £55,000 towards a total target of £120,000 for the first 4 units.
  
• By arrangement with the Council we hope the "Section 75" arrangement that Duneland would otherwise have had to make with a housing association can instead be made available for community-owned housing. This is worth up to £200,000 all told.
• A variable amount of the cost will be provided by the occupier of the house.
• Ekopia will need to arrange interest bearing loan finance to cover the
  balance.

This is a huge opportunity for the community and we hope you will take the time to read the details and support the project in any way that you can.

Recent figures provided via the Scottish Governments "Neighbourhood Statistics" website show that the Findhorn peninsula is one of only four places in the Highlands and islands where houses in the cheapest quartile are 11 (eleven) or more times higher than average earnings.

This means that without some kind of support system most of our younger members find it all but impossible to get onto the housing ladder. In addition, the Full Spectrum group has a strong commitment to providing accommodation for older community members in need of palliative care.

If we are successful in this venture at East Whins, we anticipate using a similar system to support subsequent developments on Duneland and ultimately create a Park housing co-operative to provide a diversity of community-owned property.

Land & Housing Trust

• Obtain amenity land to be held for collective benefit;
• Obtain finance to support those in housing need;
• Own affordable housing that can be rented or held in shared ownership;
• Provide policies so that allocations of housing support can be undertaken in an open, transparent and inclusive manner according to various agreed criteria.

The Allocations Policy (pdf) has the details. This sets the criteria for application for housing support awards that applies to all housing support.

Each cluster of housing has its own Housing Support Policy, which sits under this allocations policy and covers what type of housing support is available.

No housing support opportunities are currently available although please also see:

• this link to Duneland Ltd Opportunities

Soillse Cluster

In 2006, with the generous support of Duneland Ltd. and the Soillse Cluster Group, we negotiated a new 'Land Trust project' that has enabled us to own some communal amenity land in Findhorn and to provide housing support to members of the Soillse cluster, currently under construction.

Station House

In 2007/2008 we received a grant from Co-operative Development Scotland to assist with the creation of a new model for co-operative housing.

In 2008 this enabled us to form Station House Co-operative Ltd, along with our associate organisation Ecovillage Partners LLP. This was for the purpose of purchasing the historic Station House, a seven unit property in Findhorn village.

The purchase of Station House was completed in November 2008, and the work undertaken will allow for up to £40,000 to be available to support the provision of low cost rents at this property.

We anticipate further projects using variations on this model coming to fruition in the future.