A new housing initiative is being developed in the Western Isles in a bid to help address the issue of depopulation of remote communities.
The proposal has the support in principle of Scottish Government housing minister Kevin Stewart, after the issue was raised with him during a recent visit to the islands.
The new initiative is being devised as the rented housing sector focuses on already-populated areas and other housing assistance programmes prove unworkable in a remote, island setting.
In addition, the Croft House Grant Scheme, which over the years has proved enormously beneficial in helping young families to set up home in crofting communities, is now much-diminished, with a significant reduction in its annual budget and applicants being means-tested.
While the detail of how the new scheme will operate in practice is yet to be finalised, it is envisaged that young couples, in particular, will be offered financial assistance to build their home in remote communities, along similar lines to that of a shared-equity basis.
Western Isles Council convener Norman MacDonald has been leading the discussion on the new housing initiative. He represents the Uig and North Lochs ward in Lewis, which has suffered more than most from the scourge of depopulation.
He said: “The social housing programme goes a long way to meeting the requirements of built-up areas and it’s suited to large schemes which have a lower cost per unit than small schemes on the periphery.
“That’s why you are not seeing housing schemes in remote communities and without some form of new scheme we’re going to continue to see a drift of young people, in particular, who can’t afford to buy properties in rural communities, moving to the more populated areas.
“What we would want to see is the equivalent of the shared equity scheme. It currently doesn’t work very well in rural areas because of the cost of building so it becomes negative equity and mortgage lenders aren’t interested.
“So we have to find a way of breaking through that, otherwise the drift of populations from the remote areas to the populated areas will just continue and we will be losing our young people and our workforce.”
Mr MacDonald said that Mr Stewart had instructed them to come up with a workable new blueprint which draws on elements from existing programmes, but can be made to work for a remote, island setting.