Affordable green homes in the Borders
The Borders-based housing association is investing millions of pounds as part of its strategy to make sure everyone has access to somewhere they can call home.
Warmer, cheaper, and more affordable housing for all could become a reality as Eildon Housing looks at future house building and its impact on the environment.
The Borders-based housing association is investing millions of pounds as part of its strategy to make sure everyone has access to somewhere they can call home. The need for affordable housing in the Borders has hit an all-time high, with recent figures showing, on average, 17 people bidding for every home that becomes available. To meet this need, Eildon said it is important to be able to build a house quicker and make it cheaper to heat, with the aim of eradicating fuel poverty, especially in rural parts of the Borders, and reducing the use of fossil fuels. An exciting building project will start construction in the New Year that the association said it hopes will tick all those boxes as it looks to test different construction methods across four new sites.
Working in partnership with Scottish Borders Council, Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC) and Glasgow School of Art (MEARU), the new developments will be part of a study to compare construction costs, building time, living quality, and whether the homes are financially viable to build.
The developments at Westruther, Broughton, Denholm and Innerleithen will see up to 50 new green homes built and will test different building methods from Passivhaus, Energiesprong, Volumetric and traditional building methods.
Potential new tenants will be heavily involved in the study for a period of time when they move in as the results will be used to determine not only the future building programme for Eildon but also lead the way for how Scottish homes are built and lived in, in the future.