Community / North Yell community group takes first steps into property – with bigger plans to come
The North Yell Development Council is also now recruiting for a facilities manager as its property portfolio grows further
A FIRST glance it may look like any other property listing you might see in Shetland – a semi-detached house up for rent on the island of Yell.
It is nicely furnished, looks clean and would make a fine place for a family to live in.
But it marks the first time the North Yell Development Council (NYDC) has entered into the property market – with a focus on encouraging families to the area, or people for work.
The forward-thinking community development organisation received £120,000 from the Scottish Government’s rural and islands housing fund to buy the home on Greenbank Terrace in Cullivoe.
After getting the three-bedroom home up to scratch, NYDC enlisted estate agent Arthur & Simpson to market the property.
Speaking on the day the property went up for long-term let last week, NYDC development manager Alice Mathewson said it is in effect social housing – with a points scoring system at play.
The rent is £550 per calendar month, and Mathewson said Arthur & Simpson will oversee the letting process, including recommending the tenant to the NYDC board, which should allow a bit of space between the community organisation and the points system.
“We’re saying it is community housing,” she said.
“We’ve set up a points scheme that focuses on families moving into the community and folk moving in to work.”
She said the funding from government to buy the home “takes a lot of the risk out of it for us”.
But there is a much wider, longer-term vision from NYDC when it comes to property.
It is exploring the idea of new build social housing elsewhere in Cullivoe, as well as house sites and workers’ accommodation.
This comes on top of NYDC buying two business units at Sellafirth, and owning the Cullivoe harbour industrial estate and marina next to the pier, which is an important hub for fishing and aquaculture.
And it owns four community Polycrubs too, as well as having a separate company run the Cullivoe shop.
As such NYDC is now looking for a full-time facilities manager to manage all aspects of the organisation’s property, including the Garth wind farm.
The five-turbine, 4.5MW wind farm has been injecting funds into the local community since launching in 2017.
It is now returning a seven-figure sum to North Yell each year, which can be more than the £2.2 million-a-year community benefit fund for SSE’s much larger 103-turbine Viking wind farm which is distributed across Shetland as a whole.
With less breakdowns in recent times and loans paid off early, Mathewson said there is a “sizeable reserve” from Garth which can be put into the wider housing project.
“It’s bringing in a decent return for our community,” she said.
“A community owned asset will always put more back into the community than anything that’s just based on a community benefit from a large scale developer.
“The real community benefit can be generated by the community owning the asset, and I think we’ve shown that in North Yell.”
The success of the Garth wind farm and its regular income means NYDC is self-sustaining and can plan well into the future.
“In the longer term we’re looking to build our own housing,” Mathewson explained.
“At the moment that’s planned for Midfield in Cullivoe, but that could change.”
She added that it was important to have a plan ready for when funding opportunities come up.
“The main issue that every rural community has is declining population and a lack of housing for folk trying to move in,” the development manager added.
There is plenty of employment in North Yell, she said, with seafood particularly important – but there is a lack of people able to work, and housing is a factor in this.
Previous estimates suggest around 225 people live in the North Yell area, which covers around 40 square kilometres.
Mathewson again pointed to tunnels as “the way forward for wir community” as a longer-term solution over a ferry.
“It would be a game changer for everything – not just for housing, but for economic aspects, for work, for social, for our bairns…it’s the way to go.”
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