'Beat housing shortage by building on crofting land'

Published on Wednesday 2 April 2008 20:22

A CHRONIC housing shortage in the Highlands could be solved by developing land used for crofting, a new report has said.

For generations, crofters have gifted agricultural land or sold it at a nominal price to allow family or friends to build houses at a reasonable cost.

However, recently some have become wary of doing so, after sites or houses sold for small fees later attracted huge prices as second or holiday homes.

The report, by Derek Logie, of the Rural Housing Service, said restrictions could be imposed that would control the number, design and price of the houses, as well as ensuring they went to people who had to live or work in the area.

There are 17,778 registered crofts in the Highlands and Islands, housing 33,000 people. Nearly two million acres are under crofting tenure, the bulk of it common grazings.

House prices in the Highlands have increased by 134 per cent over the past five years, the highest increase in rural Scotland.

In some parts of Argyll and Bute, all council housing has been sold off under right-to-buy legislation, and up to 26 per cent of properties are now second homes.

In his report for the Scottish Crofting Foundation Mr Logie said: "The increased pressure on the housing market in the crofting counties is impacting on crofting in three ways: the lack of affordable housing has implications for the sustainability of many communities, the viability of the local shop, school and other local services; the inflated housing market has increased land values, tempting many crofters to seek to release land for housing plots through decrofting; and the value of crofting assignations has increased as they are seen as a method of acquiring a house site."

While some crofters see the sale of land as a way of supplementing their meagre income and providing a pension, many are concerned that the loss of agricultural land could threaten their way of life.

Mr Logie said pressure for housing was particularly acute in Skye, Ross-shire, Badenoch and Strathspey, Argyll and the main island centres of Stornoway, Kirkwall and Lerwick.

It has been estimated that more than 1,000 additional affordable homes are needed in Argyll and Bute by 2021, while 4,330 are needed in Highland.

But the report highlighted a case in Taynuilt, Argyll, where an absentee crofter decrofted land for houses, which are now being sold for 365,000 – a price most local people cannot afford.

The report said planning policies should favour the use of common grazings for housing, but the attitudes of individual crofters and grazings committees would be crucial in deciding whether land is given up.

It added: "It is vital to crofting communities that, if they are to release what is a finite resource, they wish to see the benefit of this resource helping their community in perpetuity, not just for the first occupants."