The funding will support Trust to provide all 290 tenants on Arran with £100 co-op vouchers and provide financial support to three community partner groups who are contributing to reducing cost-of-living pressures on Arran.

The community groups are:

• Arran Community & Voluntary Services (ACVS) - ACVS run a fortnightly lunch club from Trust’s two retirement developments on Arran, both for tenants and older people in the wider community. The support will allow the latter to provide approximately 125 no-cost meals to vulnerable islanders who have been particularly disadvantaged through the cost-of-living crisis.
• Arran Pioneers - promotes better land use and localised food production and the Pioneers run a community garden project with Trust tenants, growing food in the raised beds at our Glen Estate retirement housing development.
• Ecosavvy - runs a zero-waste cafe, a food share scheme and a community shop that promotes the reuse and upcycling of household goods.

The funding includes £20,000 from the National Lottery with the remainder funded by Trust and some of its suppliers via voluntary community benefit funding. Trust extended its thanks to the six suppliers - MAST Architects; NBM; G3; Alexander, Bell & Christie; Alexander Anderson; and Ewing Sommerville Partnership - for their financial support.

Trust held an event on Monday 20th February to hand over the funding to the three community partners.

Neil Wilkinson, Trust’s customer partner on Arran, said: “Many Arran residents, and many of our tenants on the island, are especially badly hit by the national cost of living crisis.  Prices for essentials are, from bread to bus fares to electricity, are so much higher here.  We are delighted to have secured lottery funding to support our tenants with £100 Co-op vouchers, and to secure funding too for three local charities that work with us to reduce living costs on the island.”
 
Rhona McLeod, Trust’s CEO, added: “These are very difficult times, so we were delighted to access this funding and collaborate with three community partners to provide a little extra support for our customers and the wider Arran community. We are very grateful to the National Lottery and the six suppliers who contributed to the funding.”