THE VOICE OF PROPERTY

AS the budget continues to be digested and debated, Homes for Scotland – the voice of the house building industry in Scotland - has called on the Scottish Government to follow the UK Government’s lead in investing in housing infrastructure in light of the additional £500 million allocation for the Housing Infrastructure Fund.

“Homes cannot be built in isolation,” says chief executive Nicola Barclay. “They need to be connected to existing facilities like roads, water and drainage and the people who move into new properties need to use local services such as schools, medical facilities and public transport. However, such infrastructure is expensive to deliver and house builders are often asked to make large financial contributions to meet these costs up-front before they have even built or sold any properties, making it extremely difficult for developments to proceed.”

WEE HOUSES ... BIG NEWS

THE phrase ‘affordable homes’ is, to my mind, the most meaningless, over-used and abused expression in current use.

The actual definition of ‘affordable housing’ refers to properties that require monthly mortgage payments no higher than 35 per cent of household income after tax – or are for sale or rent below their market value as part of a scheme backed by the government or local council. And there are many excellent examples of affordable homes available, except we are not embracing them in sufficient numbers.

Therefore hats off to North Ayrshire Council, which has commissioned the innovative, Ayrshire-based Wee House Company to build a development of two bedroomed homes at Chapelton – all of which will be built in modular form off-site at the company’s factory in Cumnock to be be allocated for social rent on completion.

The Wee House Company’s own