Additional phase of popular National Housing Trust launched

The growing demand for affordable-rent housing in Scotland’s capital has led to the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) launching an additional phase of the popular and innovative National Housing Trust (NHT) programme, which was developed in conjunction with the Scottish Government.

This latest phase of procurement has just been launched in partnership with The City of Edinburgh Council, with the Council seeking to double the number of new NHT homes it has across the city.

NHT is an innovative programme which, as well as helping to deliver affordable-rent housing in areas where there is a shortage, also supports many hundreds of jobs within the construction industry.

Christa Reekie, SFT’s commercial director, stated: “The City of Edinburgh Council has fully embraced the NHT initiative from the very start when it was launched in late 2010. So far the Council has over 420 NHT homes across five sites and construction of an additional 94 more homes will start soon.

“To date, contracts have been signed to build over 1,250 NHT affordable-rent homes through the original council developer model  at 32 locations across 10 local authority areas. Currently the NHT programme is attracting additional investment of nearly £190m and helped protect over 1,800 jobs.”