Affordable sustainable housing 

The Scottish Government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme is currently concluding the delivery of 50,000 homes across Scotland via a range of funding mechanisms for affordable housing providers, and by supporting the Local Housing Strategies of Scotland’s local authorities.

The Scottish Government and partners began to explore the possibilities offered by greater use of offsite construction, commissioning Edinburgh Napier University to research and report back on whether that would be of benefit.

The research found considerable potential advantages from greater use of offsite construction in terms of costs, quality and speed of delivery. It also, through the greater precision that can be achieved, strengthens the pathway to building affordable homes to net zero standards.

However, to realise those benefits, the researchers recommended a major change in the way housing development was being done, moving to a model based on design for manufacture rather than for onsite construction. The Edinburgh Home Demonstrator project was established to develop and test that model and apply it to the construction of 1,000 homes.