Colonsay
The Rural Housing Service was asked by a local family for help to negotiate with a landowner to buy a house site. The family’s current home had become too small and without land on which to build the family were thinking of leaving the island.
House building on Colonsay
 
This would have been a severe blow to the school - losing 4 children, and to the community - losing a tradesman. The RHS contacted the landowner and persuaded them of the strong community reasons why a piece of land should be sold directly to the family.

Also on Colonsay the RHS helped two local families to secure Rural Home Ownership Grants (RHOGs) to build larger houses than they had been advised by Scottish Homes (now Communities Scotland) would be possible. The RHS also highlighted discrepancies in the way RHOGs were assessed in Scottish Homes regions which led to the two families securing the full grants they were entitled to.

See Case Study: Colonsay Housing Initiative