Scotland's churches are giving up some of their own land to help solve the shortage of affordable homes in Scotland.
In an initiative spearheaded by Scottish Churches Housing Action (SCHA), land for 370 new homes has been identified in places as diverse as Pollokshields, Glasgow and Wester Ross - and they say a further 40 sites are already in the pipeline. It is thought there is a potential for an estimated capital investment of £35m in the initiative over the next 10 years.
A new church in Leith, Edinburgh, with flats built above it was one of the first to be created under the scheme. The United Reformed Church in Duke Street was completed in April after the old building was demolished and rebuilt to incorporate a smaller church and 22 affordable flats for rent by the Port of Leith Housing Association.
The SCHA believes the scheme can be expanded.
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) is lending its support by hosting a Make it Happen conference to examine how to turn surplus Church property into affordable housing and a motion has been lodged in the Scottish Parliament, also supporting the scheme.
The motion, from Jim Hume MSP, calls on the Scottish Executive to enter into negotiations with the SCHA and other landholding bodies such as the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and the Forestry Commission to ensure that the necessary land is made available to meet the demand for affordable housing across Scotland.
He said house prices had risen by 180% in the past 10 years and that the biggest obstacle to developing affordable housing is obtaining appropriate land for development particularly in urban areas.
The Make It Happen conference takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Quality Hotel, Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article