News / Hjaltland’s latest 14-home scheme completed
A LOCAL housing association has completed its latest project, a 14-unit, £1.9 million scheme at Wista in the north of Lerwick amid “stubbornly high” demand for new social housing.
Hjaltland Housing Association said it was “delighted” the scheme, designed by local architects Redman + Sutherland and completed to a “very high standard” by E&H Building Contractors, had been completed.
The contract was funded through a combination of Scottish Government grant support and £700,000 in private finance from the Bank of Scotland.
Hjaltland’s chairman Bobby Hunter said the association worked closely with Shetland Islands Council to “focus our developments in the priority areas identified in the local housing strategy but the waiting list, particularly in Lerwick, remains stubbornly high”.
“Despite our continued development of new homes over recent years we received 184 applications for these 14 homes,” Hunter said.
He added that the association was continuing to try to meet housing needs throughout Shetland – with plans to develop a further 123 homes over the next four years.
Hjaltland’s chief executive Bryan Leask said: “We originally bought the land in 2007 but due to the global economic collapse that occurred in 2008, and the subsequent cuts in government funding that followed, it took us a number of years to put together a funding package that allowed the project to proceed.
“The site itself offered unique challenges but I think the finished project rivals any small housing development. The 14 homes are built around the ‘home zone’ principle where the scheme is designed to provide a safe and pleasant place for families to live and where the pedestrian has priority over the car.”
Douglas Spowart of the Bank of Scotland’s property team said there was a “strong and ever increasing demand for the provision of social housing in Shetland”.
He said Hjaltland was viewed as “one of Scotland’s most proactive developers of social housing”, and was faced with a waiting list of over 600 seeking accommodation. These 14 properties, housing 38 people, will “help to bridge that gap,” he said.
Spowart added: “At Bank of Scotland we feel it is extremely important to support developments like this, alongside the Scottish Government, which will result in local families in need benefiting from the stability and comfort of quality housing.”
The association said it was not “resting on its laurels” – with a further 33 homes currently on site, 12 one-bedroom flats at Fort Road and 21 (a mixture of one, two and three-bedroom) homes at the Observatory due for completion over the next 12 months.
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