Highland Council’s Housing Challenge Summit has kicked off.
Taking place at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort, over 100 delegates from local and national government and business organisations are present to look at solutions to the current housing challenge.
So far, Highland Council Convener Bill Lobban has taken to the stage, to say that today is ‘not a talking shop’ and that solutions need to be found.
The aim is to work out how the current demand for housing can be met, by increasing finance and development opportunities.
Chairperson of housing and property at Highland Council, Cllr Glynis Sinclair has highlighted that over 24,000 homes need to built in the region over the 10 years.
She said: “I hope we will grasp the opportunity to meet the housing challenge.
“There are many competing demands for housing in the Highlands and we need a collective response.
“Investing in Highland is not only a socially responsible move but an economic opportunity.”
Cllr Sinclair highlighted that over 8,600 people are on the housing list, but that doesn’t include those looking to rent privately.
She said that there are significant challenges to the council and its partners, as the cost of building new homes has increased by 50 per cent from pre Covid costs and over 42 per cent of the housing income is used for historic housing debt.
“This limits what we can borrow and what we invest,” she said, “the council will continue to lobby government to wipe historic debt.”
They have placed questions to the audience:
• How do we work together across the public/private partnership to maximise the availability of additional private finance?
• What levers/mechanisms locally and nationally can we deploy to maximise the availability of land to support an action plan to meet the housing challenge?
• How do we maximise the capacity of delivery partners and what kind of supports would aid delivery?
So far the focus has been on the wealth of opportunities of the Highlands, which have been described as an ‘opportunity of a lifetime’.
However, it has also been said it would be a ‘disgrace’ if the opportunity was lost if housing is not in place.
SSEN Transmission announced today that it will be delivering 400 homes across the Highlands as part of its work in the region.
Mary Jarvie, housing strategy manager at SSEN Transmission said: “The majority of our workers will be transient and that’s why we need a housing strategy.
“We are working hard to positively supply housing across the region.
“There is a demand for housing legacy and many organisations have stepped up to help us with that.”
The focus so far seems to be on building new homes, rather than bringing empty properties into use.
Properties that have been empty for 12 months or more within the region increased from 434 in 2013 to 3334 in 2023.