There is a great need for affordable housing in most rural communities in Scotland. This is for the most part due to the housing stock being bought for second homes or holiday houses. Because of this, house prices are inflated and it becomes increasingly difficult for people to remain in the locality. However, it is important that ‘Affordable’ does not mean high-density, poor quality housing but attractive well-designed houses that are appropriate to the locality and use locally sourced materials.

There is great potential to use Scottish timber for construction of affordable housing, and there is no better place to use it than locally. This avoids heavy lorries transporting timber from one place to another on the rural road network.

We are currently building a good size forestry building at coillbeag from the trees we have cleared to create the site. It is hoped that this building will use many of the building techniques suitable for the building of affordable homes. See this page to keep up with progress on the build.

The Forestry Commission have recognised the need for land to be made available for affordable housing. For more information, see the National Forest Land Scheme.