THE Scottish Government is providing another £25 million for a scheme aimed at increasing the supply of affordable homes.
The Charitable Bond prog-ramme provides loans to councils and housing associations, with the interest earned then re-invested as grants into the social rented sector, further increasing housing supply.
The Scottish Government had previously committed to provide up to £80m through the initiative in 2022-23, but ministers have now increasing that to £105m.
READ MORE: Hebrides island begins construction of new affordable houses
Housing Secretary Shona Robison said: “I’m pleased to be increasing our investment in the innovative Charitable Bond programme, providing funding to social landlords so they can deliver affordable homes to benefit the people in their communities.
"We want everyone to have a warm, safe, affordable home that meets their needs, and by committing additional funding to the programme, we are taking yet another step towards our target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032.”
READ MORE: Scotland's first Passivhaus social housing development is completed
Kingdom Housing Association will be among the organisations to benefit, receiving loan cash that will help it provide more than 300 homes in east-central Scotland for mid-market and social rent.
The association’s executive director of finance, Ken Tudhope, said: “The simple nature of the loans provides us with a unique source of unsecured funding that gives flexibility to our business and supports our development plans.
“This will be the fourth loan we’ve taken through the programme and we plan to utilise the funds across 34 individual construction projects as part of our programme to deliver more than 2000 much-needed affordable homes in the next five years.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel