Scotland’s teenage islanders worried about future housing needs

Teenagers are worried there is no future for them on Scotland’s islands due to a lack of housing, according to a new report.

A survey of 12- 25-year-olds by Young Islanders Network (YIN) suggests 62% of respondents plan to leave their island homes when they are older because of a shortage of suitable accommodation.

Just 9% said they believed buying a home where they lived was affordable.

Senior development worker Naomi MacDonald said islanders as young as 13 had raised concerns about finding a home for themselves in the future.

The findings are based on responses from 58 young people in an interim report.

Kenny Macleod, convener of Western Isles local authority Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, said it was concerning some young islanders felt they did not have a choice but to move to the mainland.

The Scottish government said it had supported the delivery of more than 10,000 affordable homes across rural Scotland between April 2016 and March 2023, with more than 1,100 of them in island communities.

YIN is a network of community groups set up by Youth Scotland and funded by the Scottish government.

The project’s housing survey is still open, but Ms MacDonald said the interim report made worrying reading.

She said: “We’re getting 13-14 year olds who are saying ‘I don’t see a future for myself on the Island because of housing’.

“They shouldn’t even be thinking about housing.”

Ms MacDonald said the situation could make it harder for young islanders’ to make career choices.

She added: “There are young people that have done everything they can to put themselves in a place where they should have secure housing and they don’t.”

Sapphire Arkless, 14, lives on Tiree and is YIN deputy housing and employment representative.

She said: “The reason I am so into housing is because my family was struggling to find a house on the island for six years.

“I have already experienced trying to work out where we would live and come right to the brink of almost having to move off the island.”

Sapphire was born on Tiree and being a windsurfer enjoyed living so close to the sea.

Looking to the future she said: “I would probably move off the island first of all to get experience of somewhere else, but if I wanted to come back I know it would be a struggle.”

She encouraged other young islanders to take part in the survey.

The interim report was based on 58 responses from young people in the Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland, Skye and Mull, Coll and Tiree in Argyll.

It suggested only 17% of respondents thought there was enough housing where they lived, 65% thought there were too many holiday homes and 47% felt more homes needed to be built.

Since the report went out the number of survey responses has risen to 191.

The Scottish government declared a national housing emergency in May, which was designed to formally recognise problems with the wider housing system.

Housing Minister Paul McLennan said there was a commitment to deliver 110,000 affordable homes, of which at least 70% would be for social rent and 10% in rural and island communities.

He said the aim was backed up by the Scottish government’s Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan, and added that the government’s Rural and Islands Housing Fund was key to addressing specific rural housing issues.

Mr MacLennan said: “We are working closely with regional, local and community partners to ensure that we collectively deliver a sustainable solution to the challenges affecting rural and island communities, including funding for local-led research and community initiatives.

“This includes funding Youth Scotland to deliver the Young Islanders Network, to research and address the specific needs of young people on islands.”

Local authorities with island communities have been setting out their future housing needs.

Shetland Islands Council has a plan to deliver 232 homes over the next five years and has sought support of £18.5m of Scottish government funding.

Highland Council, which has Skye and Raasay among its islands, said it needs an extra 24,000 houses over the next 10 years.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar convener Mr Macleod said: “There has been a lot of housebuilding on the Western Isles over the last five to six years, but we need more because we need our young people to stay on the islands.

“We need our young people to go on to work on the islands to be sure we have a strong economy.”