MCDC - Breaking Ground on Affordable Housing

Breaking Ground on Affordable Housing

The directors and staff of Morvern Community Development Company (MCDC) are delighted to announce that we have completed our funding package and achieved the final planning consents to move to the build phase of our affordable homes project in Lochaline. MCDC will be building 14-two-and-three-bedroom homes and are very grateful to everyone who has worked so hard over a number of years to bring the project to this point. 

The site was cleared in Spring 2026 with thanks to local contractors and some of the preliminary electrical work has been completed. Some of the trees were planned to be retained but unfortunately, they were all damaged by recent storms and had to be removed for safety reasons. MCDC are now in the position that we will be breaking ground in May 2026 with the main build project being delivered across the year and estimated to complete by summer 2027.  MCDC hope to welcome our first tenants shortly afterwards. If you would like to express interest, please email [email protected]

Angus Robertson, chair of MCDC, commented that “we are keenly aware of how long affordable housing has been a top priority for the local community (as emphasised in Live Life Morvern and our Local Place Plan) and are delighted to be able to deliver these homes which will be available for affordable rent to people wanting to live and work in Morvern.” 

This is a £4.4 million project and we are grateful for the hard work of the Highland Council planning department and the support of a number of funders who are enabling the project to move forward. The Scottish Government is supporting the project with a significant grant from the Rural and Islands Housing Fund alongside financial support from The Highland Council. We are very grateful to the More Homes Division of the Scottish Government for their advice, support and guidance over the last year as we brought the project to application stage. 

We’re also grateful for the long-standing support of our outgoing MSP, Kate Forbes, for this and our many other projects. We were pleased to welcome Kate to our community hub (which she opened in 2021) for a meeting in early August to hear about the housing project and other future plans. After viewing the housing site Kate said:  "The team have been working hard for a long time to deliver new affordable housing in the community, so I'm delighted that work can now begin.  I have helped the development company to secure funding, and I am impressed that they will reinvest their own community generated funds. Reversing rural depopulation and retaining our young people is reliant on delivering more affordable homes.”

We’d also like to extend sincere thanks to the Coram Fund who gave us a grant of £50,000 at a crucial time in the project allowing us the confidence to move forward. Annabel Bath, Funds Adviser to the Coram Fund said that “The Coram Fund was set up to support rural and urban regeneration, with a particular interest in community ownership and the belief that good quality housing is key to a productive and happy life - and should be available to everyone. We were delighted to support this initiative to build family housing in Lochaline and hope that generations will benefit from having a secure and happy place to call home.”

The funding package was completed by a part grant, part loan from Social Investment Fund (SIF), £450,000 of MCDC’s own reserves generated by the Barr Hydro Scheme, a loan of a further £200,000 from MorVolts and a grant of £50,000 from HIE towards the design team pre-construction costs.

MCDC is now undertaking the construction phase alongside our architect Richard Graves of G+GA, our QS Tommy McQuade from Morand & Brotchie in Oban and TSL Contractors who have been appointed to manage the construction phase of the project. 

We look forward to keeping the community updated as the project progresses. Please follow MCDC on Facebook and Instagram for quick updates and sign up to our quarterly newsletter by emailing [email protected] for more details. 14 houses will significantly increase the number of affordable rental homes in Morvern. MCDC has had to provide evidence of local demand to the Scottish Government and has so far received expressions of interest in excess of the number of homes being built. Unfortunately, a phased approach to the project was not financially viable, mainly due to the infrastructure costs, meaning a smaller phased project did not demonstrate sufficient value for money to be funded. This is a once in a generation project aiming to meet the affordable housing needs of Lochaline for the foreseeable future and to ensure a sustainable community. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Lilia via [email protected] and Suzanne via [email protected].