Developing and delivering innovative solutions
Since its inception in 1998 as a highly innovative type of affordable housing delivery vehicle (e.g. revolving landbanking fund, key worker housing provider etc), the Trust has been, and remains, heavily involved in turning innovative ideas into practical solutions to hitherto difficult to resolve housing problems. During 2004/5, much of the Trust's creative effort was devoted to the further exploration and development of the Rural Housing Burden pre-emption right of securing the affordability of the land it buys and the houses then built on it so that successive local purchasers on modest incomes, who could not otherwise afford to compete on the open housing market, would be able to access a form of low cost home ownership in which the "subsidy" remained locked in forever. The Trust was designated by The Scottish Executive as a Rural Housing Body in November 2004 which means it is allowed to attach RHBs to the title of land it sells.
Despite the initial difficulties encountered by the Trust in achieving the target number of sales of plots with the Rural Housing Burden attached (see Section 2.1.), the Trust has continued to believe in the potential of the approach whilst being more than willing to look at variations on the theme which would suit the specific requirement of different partners better, as described below:
"The Dornoch" model
The Council asked the Trust to be the Rural Housing Burden (RHB) vehicle on a project on land they own in Dornoch but wish to see developed for low cost affordable house ownership by a local contractor, who will get a Communities Scotland's GRO-Grant to reduce the sale price of the property. The costs and resulting house sale prices are further reduced by the nil value transfer of the land to the Trust which applies on RHB to the title to each house built. The RHB, in this instance, restricts the "profit" that a purchaser can make on subsequently selling the house they have bought to an uplift of annual inflationary increases only - thus the Council's and the Scottish Executive's/Communities Scotland's subsidy are locked in by the RHB in perpetuity so that all subsequent purchasers of these houses should find them just about as affordable to buy as their first purchasers did.
The Dornoch model using GRO-Grant has proved demanding in respect of delivering the legal guarantees required by each of the 4 parties involved but is now in place, the houses are practically complete and the purtchasers are now arrangingn their mortgages.
The "Black Isle" model
In this model, the Council are seeking to find a means of allowing single house development in an area which their "Housing in the Countryside" policy currently restricts housing development in the very popular and upmarket rural hinterland of Inverness and Dingwall etc to land zoned for housing in established rural settlements. The Council recognise, however, that affordable housing opportunities for local people (in an area where they would not normally be able to compete financially in the market place) are now being restricted.
The proposed solution is that landowners willing to make land available cheaply to meet a genuine affordable local housing need should transfer the title of the plot to the Trust who will attach another version of the RHB to the title of the plot when the Trust transfers it to the owner-approved and Council-approved purchaser. The precise terms of the RHB to be applied appear likely to be a hybrid of the Dornoch model and the model the Trust has developed for its own Rural Home Ownership Grant plots.
The Forestry Commission's "A.R.S.H." scheme model
The Trust has worked in close partnership with the Forestry Commission to help it develop a "legal-friendly" model by which FC approved purchasers, like the Trust or Housing Associations, are able to sell on houses without adding further layers of unduly onerous and off-putting legal conditions in the title. The end result is that the Forestry Commission have avoided adding a Standard Security to the title and are content to accept the guarantees offered by the approved purchaser (e.g. an RHB provided by the Trust) with a fall-back position that if the house is sold on the open market within 15 years of sale by FC, then FC get the profit on the transaction. After 15 years, this condition is no longer applicable.
Spreading the word about RHBs
As a pioneer in the development and adaptation of RHBs to help solve specific local problems, the Trust is now regularly asked by others to share its experience and provide advice. As well as producing an illustrated question and answer guidance booklet explaining the Trust's own Rural Housing Burden conditions, the Trust's Chief Executive Officer and Solicitor are happy to respond to queries from interested parties, and frequently do so. In addition, the Trust's website (see 4.3.) will not only have an electronic version of the guidance booklet but also a specific section, prepared by the Trust's Solicitor, for other Solicitors who wish to explore the innovative legal aspects of the model. The Trust's staff are also all engaged in helping to increase the understanding of potential plot applicants, landowners, communities, as well as, occasionally, other interest groups in and beyond the Highlands.
Dumfries and Galloway Small Communities Housing Trust
The Trust has also provided guide and mentor assistance during 2004/5 to a Shelter-led initiative to set up a new vehicle, of a very similar design to the Highland version, to help meet the needs of Dumfries and Galloway's rural communities. This service has included a day showing the DGSCHT Board round Trust projects in Lochaber and contributions at conferences in Castle Douglas to explore and then launch the sister Trust.
Houses in the forest project, Kincraig
During 2004/5, the Trust also started exploring the potential of plots/houses in the forest project with Kincraig Community Council, the Forestry Commission and the Cairngorm National Park Authority as lead partners.
The idea is to create an exemplar project which will provide 4 well-designed wooden houses, which maximise the use of locally-sourced timber and cost no more than a conventional kit house of the same size to construct and run. A competition will be held to select a "sustainable" but cost-aware Architect to come up with a series of replicable designs for genuinely affordable timber houses which would be sympathetically sited in part of the Forestry Commission's Inshriach Forest near Kincraig in Badenoch & Strathspey. Contracts for site servicing and construction have now been signed, applicants will be RHOG funded and the houses built will be secured for continuing affordable housing provision to meet local needs via the Trust's Rural Housing Burden.
Helping the housing system work better in the Highlands
- As the foregoing sections of the Trust's Output & Performance Report 2004/05 should illustrate, the Trust has continued throughout 2004 and 2005 to work hard, effectively and skilfully to help the affordable housing provision system work better in the Highlands.
- Nevertheless, the Trust believes that the system to which it contributes should and must be made to work better still.
- It is particularly interested in exploring ways of improving the planning system's responsiveness to affordable housing land requirements and, in particular, how it could greatly increase the release of many more sites provided they were restricted to long-term affordable housing use only.
- The Trust is also very keen to see the moratorium imposed by Scottish Water on so much badly-needed affordable housing development in the Highlands resolved quickly and sensibly and it will continue lobbying to that end.
- The Trust is equally committed to pioneering developments (see 5.2.6.) which make much better use of locally grown timber in the design, construction and heating of affordable houses.