Support for Community Led Housing in Comrie

Link to ‘sign up' Those who were able to come along to Tuesday's meeting with Campbell Hall from PKC and Joe Gribben from the Communities Housing Trust were rewarded with a very positive and encouraging view of what might be done about the lack of affordable housing in Comrie. Campbell Hall and Joe Gribbens confirmed that they would be happy for Comrie to be the next community to receive their support for funding and technical advice for a community-led affordable housing scheme starting from August. The first step of this would be a housing need and demand assessment. Aisling Brady, from the Comrie Development Trust Community Land group who organised the meeting said, “It was great to see lots of people of all ages and backgrounds coming together to see what can be done about the lack of affordable housing in Comrie.” She said, “I hope people will have come away from the meeting with a sense of hope, but also with thoughts about how you might be able to contribute to the upcoming work we will need to do as a community to make this happen. There will be many future meetings. This is just the beginning.” To briefly summarise the events of the meeting, Joe Gribben and Campbell Hall spoke about their work across three Highland Perthshire sites with other communities looking to address their affordable housing problem. These include Kinloch Rannoch, Aberfeldy and Dunkeld and Birnam. Dunkeld and Birnam's PH8 Community Matters have just completed their housing needs and demand public survey with the support of CHT and PKC, and there are opportunities for our community to learn from their process. I believe Kinloch Rannoch are completing 12 houses soon, and Aberfeldy have begun work in renovating existing buildings for affordable rent. Joe Gribben's mentioned a number of other CHT projects across Scotland which may provide parallels or opportunities for advice for us too. The first step of this would be a housing need and demand assessment. Ho