Three times more ‘affordable rural’ homes built in Aberdeen City than Shetland
More affordable rural homes have been built in Aberdeen City than in Shetland, new figures reveal.
According to a Freedom of Information request, just 111 affordable rural homes have been built in Shetland since 2017.
During the same period, 380 were built in Aberdeen City – despite it being a mainly urban area.
The figures, shared by Highlands and Island MSP Rhoda Grant, also show rural housing has been built near the Edinburgh bypass and Central Belt commuter towns.
The Scottish government claims to have built more than 10,000 rural affordable homes since 2016, but Ms Grant says the new figures cast doubt over that assessment.
She is calling on the government to “urgently” re-evaluate its classification system for rural housing areas, claiming the current system is not working to help rural areas address depopulation.
“The lack of affordable housing is the single greatest issue in the Highlands and Islands.
“Our health service cannot recruit because of it.
“Depopulation increases every year because of it.
“Our economic development depends on good quality, affordable housing.
“This FOI highlights that urban areas are benefiting from funding for rural affordable housing.
“This puts rural areas at a further disadvantage.
“The Scottish Government need to examine how this has been allowed to happen and re-define their classification system for rural housing.”
The figures show that since 2017, almost 9,000 affordable rural homes have been built – but less than half of these have been in the Highlands, Islands and Moray.
John Oakes
Possibly the added cost of shipping building materials and infrastructure. An urban area in cities can reuse old stock such as MHO council housing and old industrial.
Not forgetting land values added to fresh purchase for building new housing.