Co-housing comes to the Scottish Islands
Hope Cohousing CIC was awarded a grant of £49,898 by Crown Estate Scotland to go towards the development of a new cohousing initiative in the village.
Background
Hope Cohousing CIC(HC) is a Community Interest Company that was established in 2019. The purpose of the organisation is to create and offer appropriate, accessible and affordable rental housing for older people as a lasting community benefit in the village of St Margaret’s Hope, Orkney. The long-term vision for the company is to create Orkney's first cohousing development and Scotland’s only entirely rental cohousing scheme. Since its creation in 2019, the organisation has consulted over 150 local residents as a means of addressing housing needs in the community and ensuring that elderly residents can remain in the village.
Project
Based on the island of South Ronaldsay, St Margaret’s Hope has a population of 550 and is Orkney's third largest settlement after Kirkwall and Stromness. Whilst there is a working-age demographic, a large proportion of the population is retired, and this is in line with the issues of an ageing population in Orkney. According to statistics, by 2024, 30% of the population in Orkney will be of pensionable age (against a Scottish average of 23%), with a fall amongst residents of working age. This trend has been accelerated by an increase in the number of people moving to Orkney since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic.
In 2022, the organisation was awarded a grant of £49,898 by Crown Estate Scotland to go towards the development of a new cohousing initiative in the village. The project will involve five phases and will hopefully result in the creation of Orkney's first cohousing development. Cohousing offers a new approach to affordable housing that is particularly suited to independent living in old age. It is a form of community-led housing - an intentional social community designed and managed by residents living co-operatively. Grant monies were allocated to go towards design development for modular construction, obtaining engineers’ reports for the development, commissioning and acting upon a renewables study and obtaining a building warrant. Project activities commenced in April 2022.
To celebrate the grant, Ariane Burgess, MSP (Highlands and Islands) and Convener of the local government, Housing and Planning Committee, visited to find out more about Hope Cohousing. She was joined by local councillor Steve Sankey as well as group members. A tour of the proposed site was conducted, and the organisation was on hand to answer questions and discuss the need for elderly housing provision in the community. Following this site visit, Hope Cohousing applied and received planning permission for the site in July 2022. Community engagement and outreach work has been a key proponent of this project in its early months. Every month, the organisation has been hosting a drop-in evening for the local community to attend so that residents can come and ask questions and receive updates.
The Crown Estate Scotland grant has also provided a much-needed boost to the visibility of the organisation, and in May 2022, Hope Cohousing was invited to host the Cohousing Scotland Roadshow in Kirkwall. The event took place at St Magnus Centre and welcomed other local organisations that are pushing the boundaries of housing throughout Orkney, including Orkney Empty Homes Partnership, ASPIRE enterprise agency, Sanday Development Trust, North Ronaldsay Development Trust and Shapinsay Development Trust.
Impact
As 2022 came to an end, Hope Cohousing was able to complete a full site survey and gain a building warrant for the next stage of the project. In 2023, the grantee appointed Communities Housing Trust to manage the build, and are already receiving support and advice from them. Financially, the organisation is working to secure a wider funding package to support the build of the development, which is estimated to be around £1.5 million. Crown Estate Scotland’s support for this experimental project has demonstrated the difference that communities can make when they are able to create and implement their own solutions for rural depopulation.
Looking to the future, Hope Cohousing hopes this project will act as an important national pilot and demonstrate the benefits of alternative housing models for other communities in Scotland. If you are interested in learning more about this project, why not check out the following links:
The episode on Hope Cohousing with Regenerative Scotland Podcast