Morton, however, has put his hope in Hope Cohousing, which persuaded Robert Gordon University’s school of architecture in Aberdeen to work for free to develop designs, secured feasibility funding from the Scottish government and, crucially, persuaded the Orkney Islands council to give it the land for six terrace houses – for which it then received building permission.
The first fully rented, cohousing project in Scotland is “shovel ready”, thanks to a group of people in their 70s who have spent six years fighting to turn their dream community into a reality.
Tom Morton, the convener of Cohousing Scotland, said the Hope project had come so far that “if we can’t achieve Hope, then I don’t know what other group will ever succeed”.
“We have previously supported this project but there is no delivery vehicle within the council that would support the build and transfer of management for a cohousing development at this time,” said Frances Troup, the council’s head of service for community learning, leisure and housing.
“We’ve had members who have died waiting for their cohousing project to get the green light and we’ve had others who moved to England because there are viable cohousing options there,” he said.
