Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee – Lar Housing Trust
Dear Convenor,
Following your recent letter to stakeholders, I wanted to draw your attention and that of your Committee colleagues, to the work of Lar Housing Trust. I have recently joined the Board of Lar as a Charity Trustee and believe this to be an organisation which is already making a real difference in tackling housing need in Scotland, but which could do so much more.
Lar builds affordable homes for people who are struggling to meet their rent and does so entirely through loan financing and without requiring any government grant. It is in fact a charity established through the Scottish Futures Trust which has proved remarkably successful in providing housing in dozens of constituencies across Scotland, but whose success has yet to be fully recognised. With a £55m loan from the Scottish Government, which will shortly begin to be paid back, Lar has accessed a further £65m of private finance with more to come. The Trust has now built more than 650 high quality homes for people the length and breadth of the country and will have completed at least 250 more over the next couple of years.
A typical tenant might be, for example, someone born and brought up in Edinburgh, who doesn’t qualify for social housing, who can’t afford to buy and who is being priced out of private renting in the neighbourhood where their family all live. Lar could offer this tenant the sort of flat any one of us would be proud to live in at maybe £300 less per month than they were paying.
I stress again that Lar does all this without requiring any grant support from the tax-payer and it uses a funding model that could provide so many more affordable mid-market rented homes. If Lar could access a further Scottish Government loan, money that will then be paid back, perhaps through the Financial Transactions funding, Lar could make a big impact on the pressing demand for this kind of property.
I attach a short information sheet about Lar and I know that our Chief Executive, Ann Leslie, would be more than happy to answer any questions you or the Committee might have. I hope, however, that like me, you can immediately see the attraction of this funding model and the potential to address housing need in Scotland.
Your sincerely,