The Community Led Housing Alliance has called for further public investment to accelerate the delivery of affordable homes, including a new £55 million Community Led Housing Fund, publicly-backed loan finance, and investment in the support services for community-led housing.

The Alliance has also called for a ‘culture change’ within government, with greater trust being placed in communities to deliver, own and manage affordable homes.

The first ever Census of Community Led Housing in Scotland, conducted by the Alliance, shows that communities have already provided more than 600 homes, especially in rural and island areas poorly served by the housing system. They could deliver as many as 1,700 more by 2031, if properly supported.

With a housing crisis across Scotland, the lack of affordable homes is expected to be a key topic in May’s Scottish Parliamentary Election.

The Community Led Housing Alliance – a large network of almost 80 community organisations and charities across Scotland – has, today, published its manifesto, Back Scotland’s Communities to Provide More Homes.

Mike Staples, chief executive of South of Scotland Community Housing – one of the organisations coordinating the Alliance – said: “Local community groups are tackling the housing crisis where they are, improving the lives of people in housing need and revitalising the wider community and place. 

“These essentially non-profit groups have delivered hundreds of permanently affordable homes, especially homes to rent, and are stepping in to address failures in the system – too few homes being built, house prices and rents out of reach, and too much housing lying empty or in use as second homes.

“Communities have a strong record of delivering homes in rural areas and, to tackle the national housing emergency equitably – meeting the affordable housing needs of people everywhere in Scotland – it is vital that our government and politicians back community-led housing fully.” 

Community organisations are providing affordable homes where others are not: over 96% of the homes they have delivered since 1999 are in rural districts of the Highlands, islands and southern Scotland, in places experiencing acute shortfalls in affordable housing.

And communities are set to deliver much more in the coming years. Community-led housing is Scotland’s fastest growing housing sector, with a 250% increase in housing completions in 2021-25, compared to 2016-20. Almost 1,700 more homes are in the pipeline, and delivery of just the most advanced projects – around 900 homes – by 2031 would represent a further 314% increase in completions.

Community-led housing could also expand to 20 Council areas by 2031, continuing to grow in the Highlands, islands and rural south, and becoming more common in towns across the south and east of the country too. 

The public sector has fostered this rising community effort, including the Scottish Government, South of Scotland Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise, and an increasing number of Local Authorities. But there is uncertainty over future Scottish Government support.

Morven Taylor, interim chief executive officer of Communities Housing Trust – a partner in the Alliance – said: “Housing challenges must be addressed if we are to retain young people and families in rural and island communities and attract new residents, recruit key workers and sustain public services, and realise people’s ambitions for economic development and opportunity.

“Communities have been acting to address housing shortfalls, and public investment has allowed them to create a pipeline of projects which far outstrips what they have delivered so far, in terms of the potential number of affordable homes.

“With further support, and strong partnerships, local organisations will be able to realise this potential and deliver more permanently affordable homes, changing the lives of people in housing need and ensuring that their communities can thrive. This is about communities being empowered to shape their own futures.”

The Alliance argues that the existing pipeline of 1,700 community-provided homes, and its benefits for people around Scotland, will only be realised with further public investment and a culture change within government. 

Specifically, the Alliance is advocating for the creation of a new £55m Community Led Housing Fund, which would transform the landscape for grant funding. It is also asking the Scottish Government and Scottish National Investment Bank to provide access to ‘patient’, low-cost commercial finance through a dedicated loan fund.

And it is calling for the Scottish Government to sustain and expand its support for Scotland’s nonprofit ‘community housing enablers’, i.e. third sector bodies which provide professional support to community organisations – helping them to develop and deliver complex housing projects, mitigate the risks, control costs and realise the benefits for people in housing need and the community at large.