Gail Matheson: Sustaining Highland communities through housing - 20 years of HHA

This year marks 20 years since Highland Housing Alliance was established, and in that time, the housing landscape has changed significantly. In our early years, the challenges centred around securing land and planning. Now, the challenges have evolved: zoned land is harder to come by, the planning process is more complex, and higher building standards – while important – add both cost and time. Current economic uncertainty also makes securing funding more difficult than ever.

The Highlands are in the grip of a housing challenge. There is significant demand, with The Highland Council estimating that £2.8 billion is needed to deliver the required 24,000 homes in the area. The cost of private rentals has also increased, alongside a decrease in the supply of rental properties.

Multiple factors have affected the availability of housing: a report by The Highland Council showed that there has been a surge in over-75s living in the area, indicating that the Highlands are being increasingly seen as a retirement destination rather than a place that can sustain its working-age residents.

Younger people in the Highlands are struggling to take the first steps on the housing ladder in an environment where housing is both prohibitively expensive and in short supply, which, in turn, means a growing number of people who live and work in the Highlands are being priced out.

The outlook in the Highlands is not wholly negative, however. Significant investment is due to come in the form of the Inverness & Cromarty Firth Green Freeport, announced in January 2023, which aims to boost economic development, renewable energy transition, and regional innovation in the Highlands through significant tax, customs and infrastructure incentives. The Freeport will see the creation of more than 11,000 jobs locally, many of whom will be specialist workers. The success of the Freeport could hang on the availability of homes for these workers.

HHA focuses on providing mid-market rental (MMR) homes, which are typically more affordable than private rents, but sit above social housing prices. For many people, particularly those who are in work but are not yet in a position to buy, MMR provides a vital solution, offering them a high-quality home in a location they want to be, and with the freedom to stay long term, or to move into home ownership should the opportunity arise.

HHA’s commitment to delivering high-quality homes to the people and places that need them has only become more important in the face of the area’s housing challenges. In the last 20 years, we have taken handover of over 500 high-quality homes across the Highlands, ensuring people are able to live and work in the communities they care about.

Our partnerships with organisations including the Scottish Government, Tulloch Homes and The Highland Council have delivered developments in communities across the Highlands, including at Inverness, Conon Bridge, Aviemore, and Kirkhill. HHA also has more than 100 MMR homes currently in the pipeline.

Many of these developments have incentives in place to ensure that people who are vitally important to the communities they serve – including teachers, social care staff, blue light workers and local authority employees – are prioritised in their applications, to ensure these essential workers can continue living in the places they are needed the most in the face of a housing challenge that may otherwise see them priced out or unable to secure quality housing.

In the last 20 years, the housing landscape has changed significantly, but HHA’s purpose remains the same. The challenges we face in the Highlands cannot be solved overnight, but by continuing to work with our partners to deliver high-quality homes in the communities that need them, HHA will continue to play its part in addressing the issues faced by communities across the region.