draft report - Scottish Crofting Federation

3 Housing Need in the Crofting Counties
3.1. Introduction
The lack of affordable housing is widely accepted as a limitation on the sustainable development of the
Highlands & Islands. Overall the area is experiencing unprecedented population growth, although this
masks significant regional differences between mainland Highland areas and the island councils which are
losing population. The demand for housing has fuelled significant increases in house prices and land
values; house prices in Highland have increased by 134% over the last 5 years the highest increase in
rural Scotland. Many households, particularly first time buyers are now not able to compete in the housing
market; just 23% of house buyers in Highland were first time buyers compared with an urban average of
34%. 12
In order to meet the growing housing need across the Highlands & Islands, Communities Scotland s
investment programme has increased substantially in recent years:
£M 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07
Area Spend Units Spend Units Spend Units Spend Units
Argyll n/a - £6.500 - £12.000 - £15.500 -
Highland £14.115 261 £20.496 266 £33.609 684 £43.372 552
Orkney £2.870 73 £2.054 39 £5.846 56 £5.019 120
Shetland £1.089 39 £2.008 4 £1.498 17 £3.030 94
Western Isles £2.928 60 £2.830 48 £3.107 56 £6.879 80
Total H&I £21.002 433 £27.389 357 £44.060 813 £58.300 846
Table 1. Communities Scotland Investment 2003/07 Source: Communities Scotland
In Highland the spend has increased threefold since 2003/04; investment in Orkney has increased by 75%;
investment in Shetland by 178%; and in Eilean Siar by 135%.
Despite the increases in investment there remains significant housing needs in the crofting areas, and
crucial obstacles to the increase in the supply of affordable housing; particularly water infrastructure and
land supply.
The purpose of this chapter is to analyse housing needs in each of the local and island authorities to
assess the level of housing need and the role of land supply in limiting housing authorities response to
these needs and to highlight the value of increasing land supply through the release of croft land to
meeting housing need.
3.2. Argyll & Bute
Houses on Crofting Land Rural Housing Service 2007
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