Documents Archive | Arran Recovery Group

ADT Second or Empty Homes Questionnaire Comments Oct 2022

admin — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:44:52 +0000

The post ADT Second or Empty Homes Questionnaire Comments Oct 2022 appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

ADT Second or Empty Homes Questionnaire Results Graphic October 2022

admin — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:44:19 +0000

The post ADT Second or Empty Homes Questionnaire Results Graphic October 2022 appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

ADT Second or Empty Homes Questionnaire Results Word Cloud Oct 2022

admin — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:43:45 +0000

The post ADT Second or Empty Homes Questionnaire Results Word Cloud Oct 2022 appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

Arran Development Trust Input to Arran Affordable Housing Task Force

admin — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:29:10 +0000

Arran Development Trust Input to Arran Affordable Housing Task Force

Arran Development Trust

March 2023

Table Of Contents

Arran Development Trust Summary.

The Big Idea.

The Journey so far.

The Cookbook.

Lessons Learned and Recommendations.

The Community.
Central Government Agencies.
Local Government,

Recommended Changes in Housing Demand Assessment.

Ideal Ingredients for Arran’s affordable housing.

Summary Recommendations.

Background Numbers.

. Economic and Business Trends.

11.Summary ADT Survey Results.

12.0 Background information from Previous Work.

Arran Development Trust Summary

Our primary objective remains to increase the supply of affordable homes directly and indirectly. The strategic discussion is how we can best do this.

In summary , it is clear that by joining up various strands of Public Sector funding with Community Priorities and Private Sector finance we can go a long way to solving the affordable housing crisis on Arran and other Islands.

We will obtain £4m in funds from the Government and a Commercial Bank to build 18 affordable homes and 25 serviced self-build plots. This is the biggest Private, Public and Community affordable housing building project on any Scottish Island. It would not have happened without the perseverance of our small Island team. Specific recognition was given by the BoD for hard and smart work, flexible approach and financial assistance. A few far sighted individuals within the Public Sector should also be commended for their vision and support.

The primary focus of the Officers and Directors will be the delivery of 18 affordable homes and 25 serviced self-build plots. However, this £4m milestone allows us to take stock of what we have learned, the direction of travel in the Island economy and develop a plan to deliver even more homes, directly and indirectly, as well as potential infrastructure projects.

The attached document forms the bones of the Journey so far, lessons learned and recommendations for change . Details can best be added with interactive discussion.

Arran’s Plan: ( The CookBook)

A Big Idea is a non-essential ingredient but very helpful in the dark days.

Ingredients

1) Community Trust with a vision for the future and a BOD with skills, energy and above all perseverance.

2) Public Sector support for the community to develop the vision into a series of measurable actions. That is, a Community owned Plan.

3) Baseline data to determine the start point and agreed target and time to achieve.

4) Community and Public Sector Resources to Deliver the Plan.

5) Open and transparent engagement and governance process.

THE BIG IDEA.

Arran is a world class place to Live, Work and Visit, balancing Community, Environment and Economy.

How: Community group optimise existing public sector infrastructure improvement (Broadband and Ferry Terminal) and identify others to achieve the Vision.

Metrics: 1) Revenue Growth. 2). Quality of Life 3) Population in total and improving demographics.

Outcomes: Through the last decade: Revenue growth at 2% approx. Quality of Life shows Arran in the top 10% in Scotland. Population and demographics still a problem.

Primary Reasons for Population issues : The lack of Affordable Housing has been identified in every independent Professional Study and Community priority setting programme since 2007.

Response: Community embarks upon a journey to increase the supply of Affordable Housing, increase working population and promote economic growth and community sustainability. This is one of several journeys.

Arran’s Affordable Housing Journey so far:

Current State:

Insufficient supply of affordable housing to Arran over the last 20-years has created an affordable housing crisis, driving depopulation and risking the sustainability of the Island Community and Economy.

Future State:

Agreement between the Arran Community and NAC on the demand and supply of affordable housing on Arran, with funding and a build plan which matches supply to demand.

How do we move from Current to Future State: (Phase 1)

Commission a study to define affordable housing demand based on Economic need. 2015

Study defines affordable housing demand at 200 units. NAC’s Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) moves from 0 to 54. 2016

Establish Arran Development Trust to increase the number of affordable homes on Arran to match identified demand, through influence and direct action. 2017

ADT secures funds to identify land and projects to close the supply gap. 2018

ADT puts the house build plan to competitive tender. 2018

ADT secured a conditional Regional and Island Housing Fund (RIHF) for £3.5m to build 45 houses in Lamlash. 2019

ADT failed to secure a Scottish Land Fund grant to purchase the required land 2019

ADT reconfigures the plan to build 18 affordable homes and 25 serviced plots. 2020

ADT Receives final approval, sign off and private funds of £2.5 m to add to the £1.5m from RIHF the to build 18 affordable homes and 25 serviced plots. 2022

NAC completed 34 of the 54 houses in Brodick identified in 2016 SHIP 2022 2022

After 8 years affordable housing demand remains significantly ahead of supply causing depopulation, and significant risk to the sustainability of the Island.

3 Continued

Phase 2

NAC/Islands Team/ADT commission study to determine affordable housing demand on Arran based on socio-economic need. Start 2022/Done 2023

ADT Build 18 affordable homes and 25 serviced plots Start 2023/ Done 2024

Trust Housing build 25 affordable homes. Start 2025/ Done 2027

Phase 3

New Demand Assessment and SHIP established. ?

Arran Development Trust CookBook ( What made it work so far)

Batch: 18 Affordable Homes and 25 Serviced Plots.

Ingredients:

It should be recognised that many key ingredients are vanishingly rare. More sustainable ingredients are being sought for our next batch. More on this later.

Cohesive Community with a shared vision for the future.
Charitable Trust with wide Community Support focused on increasing the Supply of affordable housing.
Trust BoD with extensive experience in Building and/or Housing Association, finance and lived experience of housing demand. Above all, the BOD will need perseverance.
Members of the BOD prepared to loan funds to maintain the project.
Access to Public Sector Grants to identify land and projects.
Access to Public Sector Grants to part pay for Affordable Homes Development.
Employ a few very good people.
Flexible employees, prepared to go the extra mile on part time wages.
Flexible landowners with regard to timing of full payment for land.( Loans)
Flexible Service Providers who completed work at risk to move the project on.
Support from Local Authority in deferring service charge payments.
Private Finance that is prepared to chance investment in an organisation with no assets and no track record of housing development.
Extensive consultations, reviews, press communication and solid hard work.

Step 1 ( 8 Years)

a) Add ingredients into a medium sized Island and stir vigorously for 8 years, adding encouragement and support as required. Avoid cynics and doubters near the process during this critical phase.
b) Identify how all of the above could be improved

Step 2 ( 18 months)

a) Apply the contents to two sites covering 4 acres and apply the additional contracted ingredients of building skills and site management.
b) Apply the lessons learned in Step 1 a) to future projects.

Step 3 ( 2024)

a) Populate 18 affordable houses with working families on Arran or families with job offers on Arran.
b) Sell 24 Plots with a Rural Housing Burden to 24 families from Arran or families with job offers on Arran.

Arran Affordable Housing: Lessons Learned:

Community:

“Help is not coming”( Darren McGarvey Reith Lecture). A more complete statement is: Help is only coming when sought by an energized focused and persistent community.
Creation of a community supported Trust with Charitable Rural Housing Status is essential.
The Trust needs paid employees. A voluntary BoD will not get this to the line.
Trust BoD requires energy and persistence as essential prerequisite. If you do not have people on the BoD with extensive experience in Building and/or Housing Association and finance, do not even start the process.
Landowners and BoD members worked at risk of losing substantial monies if the project could not be funded. This is not repeatable.
Keep the Community informed at every stage.

Lessons Learned:

Identified fundamental disconnect between Community and Local Authority view of the demand requirement for Affordable Housing sooner.
Using one builder for the overall contract makes building on the island unaffordable. Projects need to be broken into individual work packages and managed on the Island.
The Arran Island Plan needs to be delivered.
The right Trust BoD is essential.

Lessons Learned Continued.

b) Central Government Agencies:
To be clear, we could not have got to where we are without support from Government Agencies at every step.
Grant processes seem unnecessarily complicated and time-consuming causing many small volunteer-based community projects to fall at the first hurdle.
Government agencies do not seem connected. We received a building grant from RIHF but failed to secure the funding from the Scottish Land Fund to purchase the land. This created a two year delay in obtaining private finance.

Recommendations/Asks:

1) Simplify/shorten the application process.

2) Create Best Practice Cookbook for increasing supply of affordable housing on Islands.

3) Join up agency funding around a specific theme e.g. population or affordable housing. For example ; if Regional and Island Housing Fund (RIHF) part fund the build, there needs to be a very good reason why Scottish Land Fund (SLF) does not part fund the land purchase. They should connect with each other.

4) Funding agencies give priority to programmes that seek at least 50% of funding from Private Sector. Better leverage Public Finace.

5) As the name suggests RIHF support Rural and Island. Although rural cost will be higher than non-rural, Islands have 30% cost premium for building, which is not taken into account in the grant.

6) RIHF can pay ‘abnormal costs’ incurred at the end of the project. This can put small community projects in jeopardy through cash flow issues. Pay ‘abnormal costs’ at the various building stages in which the costs are incurred.

7) Much of RIHF is left unclaimed. This is caused by the practical difficulties small organisation have in completing projects. Either fund professional services to support projects, from planning to financing or use £45m fund to leverage private funding and provide a combined Public/Private £130m fund.

5 c) . Local Authority: Lessons learned.

Local Authorities benefit from central government affordable housing grants but have no obligation to support the development through funding planning permission, building warrants or direct support for projects.
To be clear, NAC deferred payment on planning and building warrants which was of great assistance.
Local Authority demand assessment is too heavily weighted to the Common Housing Register. This does not work well for Island Communities and Economies.
Points Allocation Process tailored to social need rather than community need.

Local Authority Recommendations/Asks:

1) Initiate Affordable Housing Demand Review to reach agreement between the Arran Community and Local Authority, considering economic and community needs, over the next 10 years.(More detail on input to this separately)

2) Create Affordable Housing Task Force to look at all aspects of Demand and Supply of housing on Arran. Use learnings to support other Island Communities.

3) Arran Affordable Housing Fund. Funded by Second and Empty Homes Council Tax income. 25% of housing stock is Second and Empty homes. 40% of NAC Second Homes are on Arran. Show how Second Homeowners contribute to solving the critical housing shortage. Increase Council Tax on Second Homes.

4) Arran Affordable Housing Demand Assessment follows, including critique of Common Housing Register from an Island Perspective and the use of other Island demand indicators like Tied Accommodation, Void Rates, Business and Public Services vacancies and the 10 year plan.

5) Pay for Planning and Warranty charges to support RIHF affordable housing projects.

6) ADT’s should have access to income from the Second Homes fund.

7) Points allocation process tailored to Community Need.

5 d). Collective Focus on Priority Issues:

1) Ambition based joint resources, Community, Public and Private sector. Engage the power of the community and the private sector to set jointly achievable goals that lever additional funds to deliver the Strategic Objectives of the Islands Plan.

2) Incentives for Local Authorities to support Island Affordable Housing Demand. New carrots or sticks. e.g., bigger housing funding allowance for Local Authorities with Island Populations: (Island build cost means less electoral bang for the Island buck, means less affordable houses built).

3) Increase pace, measurement, and delivery: Days, weeks, months rather than months, quarters, and years, to solve this critical problem.

Recommended Changes Housing in Demand Assessment

The Arran Development Trust has identified several additional pieces of data required to supplement the Housing Register method of determining Social Housing Demand on Islands generally and Arran in particular. The data required for demand assessment is probably Island specific. For Arran it is outlined below.

Problems with the Housing Register Method

Lack of affordable housing supply creates a lack of use.

Identifying demand through the Housing Register requires seekers to believe there is a chance of obtaining a house. This works in the mainland with a 5 to 8 % void rate and new affordable houses delivered every year. Arran’s void rate is consistently under 1 % with an 11-year gap in the provision of affordable housing. New housing in 2022 and proactive work will help but still a major problem.

Assumes easy movement between locations:

The Housing Register method assumes the existence of a public and private transport network that allows easy movement between locations for employment. That is, people in low rent areas with low levels of economic activity, can service economic and public service demand in areas of high economic or public service activity. This is not the case on Arran. There are no low rent areas. There is a closed transport network dependent on a poor ferry service and limited public transport. This directly impacts the ability of the economy and public services to react to increases in demand.

10 year economic and public sector plans, need to play major part in the demand assessment for affordable homes.

Ten year trend analysis on tourism, which is the major economic sector on the Island, suggests a 20% increase in the volume of tourists. CalMac are using this 100,000 increase in passengers in their long term planning. Based on the Fraser of Allander study, this could represent a 150-200 increase in the number of employees required. The population increase in this sector alone, will have knock effects on Education and Health and Social Services. This does not include the demands of an aging population (33% over 65) and most likely growth in other sectors.

6 Continued.

Void Rates should be indicators of latent demand on Islands

Demand for Private and Public Sector employees happens in real time. Job offers are made and accepted or rejected based on the availability of affordable accommodation. Applying to the housing register at that time, with 1 void in 293 houses (0.3%) is meaningless. Lucrative short terms let means very limited private long term let. The result; lost vital employment in critical sectors. Mainland Social Housing at 8% void rate and lower cost to buy or rent, negates this problem.

Given all the above, it is essential that: Projected ten year economic and public sector demand, the volume of tied housing, the void rate as well as the Housing Register should determine the demand for affordable housing on the Island. Weighting of each will change in time and should be discussed and agreed.

7 . Ideal Ingredients:Community, Public, Private Affordable Housing

If all recommendations are accepted. What could ADT’s next batch ingredients look like?

Cohesive Community with a shared vision for the future.
Charitable Trust with wide Community Support focused on increasing the Supply of affordable housing working in conjunction with other affordable housing suppliers.
Trust BoD with extensive experience in Building and/or Housing Association, finance and lived experience of housing demand. Above all, the BOD will need perseverance.
The Trust employs good people and creates secondary local employment.
Central Government Agencies funding aligns to Island Plan priorities connecting several funds into Arran Affordable Housing building, with access to all partners including the ADT.
Local Government housing demand assessment created in conjunction with local business, public services, the community, the 10-year plan and Housing Register.
ADT has access to Local Government Affordable Housing Funds.
Joining up Government support means private finance partners are easy to find.
Second and Empty home owners are seen to be contributing towards solving the Islands affordable housing problem through increased Council Tax.
Points allocation heavily weighted to critical worker needs in public services and business.

Step 1 ( 2 Years)

Add ingredients into a medium sized Island and stir vigorously for 2 years, adding encouragement and support as required. Avoid cynics and doubters as a general rule.
b) Identify how all of the above could be improved and re

Arran Development Trust Summary Recommendations

a) Central Government Agencies:

1) Simplify/shorten the application process.

2) Create Best Practice Cookbook for increasing supply of affordable housing on Islands.

3) Join up agency funding around a specific theme e.g. population or affordable housing. For example; if Regional and Island Housing Fund (RIHF) part fund the build, there needs to be a very good reason why Scotish Land Fund (SLF) does not part fund the land purchase. They should connect with each other.

4) Priority given by funding agencies to programmes that seek at least 50% of funding from the Private Sector. Better leverage Public Finance.

5) RIHF recognises additional Island Build Costs: Although rural cost will be higher than non-rural, Islands have a 30% cost premium for building. This is not taken into account in the housing grants.

6) RIHF can pay ‘abnormal costs’ incurred at the end of the project. This can put small community projects in jeopardy through cash flow issues. Pay ‘abnormal costs’ at the various building stages in which the costs are incurred.

7) Public/Private Island affordable housing fund. For example, RIHF has £45m over 5 years. Local island groups then guddle around to get the balance of funds to build the houses. This could be made easier by a centrally managed private/public fund to lever the £45m to £125m. And/or provide professional support/services to small communities

8b) Local Authority Recommendations:

1) Initiate Affordable Housing Demand Review to reach agreement between the Arran Community and Local Authority, considering economic and community needs, over the next 10 years.(More detail on input to this separately)

2) Create Affordable Housing Task Force to look at all aspects of Demand and Supply of housing on Arran. Use learnings to support other Island Communities.

4) Increase Council Tax on Second Homes and Empty Homes with the exception of Long Term Lets. To emphasis item 3 and increase affordable Island housing fund.

5) ADT access to income from the Second Homes fund.

6) Pay for Planning and Warranty charges to support RIHF affordable housing projects.

7) Island Affordable Housing Demand Assessment: Separate recommended changes to the Arran Affordable Housing Demand Assessment outlined within this paper.

8 c) Collective Focus on Priority Issues:

2) Incentives for Local Authorities to support Island Affordable Housing Demand. New carrots or sticks. e.g., bigger housing funding allowance for Local Authorities with Island Populations: (Island build cost means less electoral bang for the Island buck, means less affordable houses built).

3) Increase pace, measurement, and delivery: Days, weeks, months rather than months, quarters, and years, to solve this critical problem.

Background Numbers – Arran Affordable Homes Summary Info

The Start Point

Scotland Arran Comment

Social Housing as % of total: 24% 11% Less than half the national average

Second Homes as % of total: 1.1% 25% Arran has 40% of NAC³ second homes

Average House Prices: (2021): £205k £273k North Ayrshire prices are half that on Arran

In 2015 the North Star study on economic need for affordable homes on Arran, identified, through extrapolation, the need for a minimum of 200 new affordable homes on Arran.
The Social Investment Housing Plan (SHIP) for Arran changed from 0 to 54. 34 of these homes have been delivered by North Ayrshire Council (NAC). The other 20 are due from *Trust Housing by 2024. (*Trust Housing is a Housing Association, not connected to the Arran Development Trust).
Since 2015 Long Term Lets from the private sector have declined as legislation to enhance security of tenure coincided with house price increases and growing demand for holiday lets.
The 1991 Census showed Arran with 22% of its Housing Stock as Second Homes. Anecdotal evidence suggests a history of second homes going back decades. Our tourist sector is largely dependent upon them for visitor accommodation. Can tax income from second homes do more to support affordable house building and rents on Arran?
On average, 25% of Arran’s housing stock is second and empty homes. Some villages have as much as 37 to 47% of their housing stock as second or empty homes.
NAC has an affordable housing fund financed by Council Tax from second homes.
40% of Second Homes in North Ayrshire are on Arran.
Arran in 21/22 contributed approximately £879,000 Council Tax income from Second Homes to North Ayrshire Council.
In addition, there are 139 houses on Arran registered as businesses and therefore paying no Council Tax. If they were, it would add a further £200,000 approx. to the £879,000 above.
NAC provides 72% of Social Housing in North Ayrshire and 9% on Arran.

NAC social housing rents are the lowest in North Ayrshire. Arran’s main providers charge higher rents. Trust Housing (Nov 21) charges 28% more for three-bedroom house. Irvine Housing Association is 19% higher. These are not the worst examples.

In summary, a study completed in 2015 suggested Arran needed a minimum of 200 more affordable homes. We have built 34. There are nearly twice as many second homes as social homes on Arran. If you can get a social home, it will cost more than the mainland. The lack of affordable housing remains a critical constraint on population retention and growth, and economic development, as outlined by the 2015 North Star Study and more recently by the Fraser of Allander Study in 2020.

Economic and Business Trends Impacting Demand

Change is inevitable. We can shape it by understanding the direction of travel.

Arran Development Trust Purpose:

The Arran Development Trust (ADT) will increase the supply of affordable homes, directly and indirectly, for the Arran community, to the point where demand and supply are in balance. It will do this by working with the private and public sector to raise funds, improve processes and build homes. In addition, the ADT will support other infrastructure projects that increase the sustainability and prosperity of the Island. It will do all of the above, while working to maintain the Island Economy, Community and Environment in Balance.

Direction of Travel:

1) If we only grow tourism at historic level, we will attract 100,000 new visitors and an extra £20m by 2032. Equal to two Auchrannies ? (20% annual increase).

2) The addition of another 1000 passenger ferry and improvements in the application and development of digital technology will support migration to Arran.

3) There will be other infrastructure developments. e.g. (Marina, Distillery, Timber Processing, Tourist Accommodation) which will require infrastructure and labour.

4) Transport movements on and off the Island have increased by 43% since 2010. Repeating this growth over the next 12 will see an additional 50,000 vehicle movements by 2030. Do we have the infrastructure for it ? Is this desirable ?

5) Assuming we staff up to support the above, population will stabilize and then increase with the injection of new social and private housing. Target the 2001 level of 5,000 by 2030 ? What house building programme supports this

6) Public Sector funds for social/affordable will become harder to obtain. We need to find new creative ways of matching public and private sector funding to deliver our affordable housing needs.

7) Second Homes will remain at around 23% -25% of housing stock by 2030 ? 40-year trend. Possible source of funding for affordable homes support (Wales and North Yorkshire).

8) Population Increase will mean 230 more 0 -15 year olds and 111 more 65+ by 2030 (32% of Population ). Are we resourced for it (schools, early learning, care) ?

9) Personal, local, national, global reactions to climate change will drive all aspects of life and business over the next 10 years…What does this mean for Arran?

10) The Island Bill implies more Island consultation and control over our local services and environment. What does this mean for Arran?

ADT Survey Results ( Press Release)

November 8^th

97% of residents on Arran, who completed a recent survey, agreed the Island needs more affordable housing. 96% felt the lack of affordable housing threatens the community and economy of Arran. This is no surprise, every Arran priority survey and professional research since 2008 has identified the lack of affordable housing as the biggest constraint on economic development and the primary cause of young and working age migration.

Opinion was also sought on what could be done to improve the situation. 90% of the participants agreed the island needs an Arran Affordable Housing Fund, funded by income from Second and Empty homes, and used to alleviate Arran’s chronic housing shortage. 25% of Arran’s Housing stock are Second Homes, the largest proportion in Scotland. The fund, administered by the Local Authority, would be used to cover the extra cost of building on the Island and potentially, provide some rent subsidy for key workers.

A significant majority is in favour of increases in Council Tax on Second Homes (88%) and Long-Term Empty houses (78%). Second Homes were not seen as the major problem but as a means of helping to fund more affordable homes.

The local authority, North Ayrshire Council have recently completed 34 social houses in Brodick. These are the first Local Authority houses on Arran in a generation. The Community appreciate them, allowing families to stay on the Island and provide hope for the families still desperately seeking accommodation.

The fact is Arran needs a lot more affordable housing, with the survey suggesting 197. To this end, the Arran Development Trust will obtain funds from the Scottish Government Regional Island Housing Fund and match them with private funding, to create 18 affordable homes and 25 serviced plots for self-build, over the next two years. It is still not enough.

There were several other suggestions made by Islanders that the Arran Development Trust will continue to discuss with the Local Authority. The biggest task will be to agree the affordable housing demand with the Local Authority and then finding a way to build the homes.

Of many comments to the survey, this one best articulates the feeling of the respondents: “Teachers, nurses, doctors, care staff cannot find permanent places to live, be it renting or buying. Bus drivers, supermarket staff, hotel and catering staff have no hope of buying, and rentals are like hen’s teeth. One recent case saw a new member of staff at Montrose House Care Home asked for somewhere to pitch the trailer tent she was living in. How can this be normal?”

The Arran Development Trust and the Arran Community does not accept that this is “normal” and will continue to work with local and central Government to find short- and longer-term solutions.

12.

Back ground Information from 2019 through 2021: Recommendations and supporting data.

Arran’s Housing Crisis and what we do about it:

The Arran housing crisis is deepening. It is probably the biggest example of a Public Service Inequality on our Island. The lead time to create sufficient affordable housing to resolve the crisis is too long. Remedial action is required now to mitigate the worst impacts of the crisis. The remedial action can run in parallel with an urgent building programme and yes, we do appreciate NAC’s 34 social houses in Brodick. It provides a slight glimmer of hope.

Much of this information was put together in August 2019. Most of it will be depressingly familiar and is still directionally correct. I have updated where appropriate.

Contents:

Summary; The Problem, Objectives, Potential Solutions, Timings and Owners.

Background numbers and Social housing providers, weekly rent comparisons 2021.

House Price and Second Home Comparison. Scotland, NAC, Arran.

Arran Housing Stock by Village: (Empty Homes, Second Homes).

Second Homes by Rate Band and Income. Bus Rates Accommodation by Village.

Empty Homes: Extract from NAC Document to aid understanding.

2019 to 2024 Social Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) Summary and notes.

Governments Rural and Island Housing Fund Overview

Prepared from various declared sources by Tom Tracey: Chairman Arran Development Trust November 2021.

The Problem: Rapid increase in house prices further exacerbated the existing chronic lack of affordable housing, impacting; public services, population and GVA.

We need urgent action now from the Community and Government Agencies.

Objectives ( Strategic): Create a demand/supply balance for affordable housing.

(Tactical): Encourage private sector housing into long-term letting and create an affordable housing fund to support strategic and tactical objectives.

How do we achieve the objectives?

What ( Strategic) When Who

Increase SHIP to 100 units and deliver: 2024 – 2027 NAC/ADT

Deliver 18 affordable homes and 25 affordable plots: 2023 – 2024 ADT

Islands Team, additional funds for No1 Island priority: 2023 – 2024 SG/HIE

(Tactical)

Island affordable housing fund: £879k from Arran

from Second Homes Council Tax/annum: 2023 NAC

Review Self Catering Small Business Rates Relief. Ensure

Genuine small business (139 = £203k potential for item 4): 2024 SG

Use income from Affordable Housing Fund to

subsidise rents for key workers and build houses: 2024 NAC

Investigate high quality modular temporary ( Not fixed

Foundations) accommodation. Nov – Ongoing ADT

Offer landlords/tenants Council Tax reductions,

up to 50% for providing Long Term Lets (LTS): 2023. NAC

Business rates claims in domestic zones require

‘Change of Use’ Planning Permission. (e.g. Edinburgh): 2023. NAC

Communicate plans for “licensing” SLT including plans

monitor 70-day occupancy. 2023. NAC/SG

2 cont..

Planning Permission only granted for Social or Affordable

Housing when second and empty homes exceed 35% of stock. 2023. NAC

A non- commutable sum of 25% of value applied to new Planning

Permission on residential property: ( Affordable Housing Fund). 2023. NAC

Allow NAC to increase Council Tax at 100%/annum

for Long Term Empty Houses after year two: 2023. SG

Provide conversion support for people in large houses that

Want to convert part to LTL accommodation. 2023. NAC

Assuming all/some of the above, make the community aware

That Second Homes are contributing to Affordable Homes. 2023 ADT/NAC

Notes: North Ayrshire Council (NAC): Arran Development Trust (APT): Scottish Government (SG):Highland Islands Enterprise ( HIE): Item 9, Edinburgh City Council plans: Item 10, Government plans: Item 11, Variation on St Ives/North Wales/Peak, Lake Districts models.General point: Reduce Income Tax on LTL. E.G. France, 10%. Germany 2.7% SGov/UKGov

NAC Social Housing Weekly Rent Comparisons for 2018

Background to Social Housing in North Ayrshire and Arran:

There are 342 social houses on Arran. The primary social housing provider is Trust Housing. This is the third year that these comparisons have been made with similar results. This analysis does not address the critical shortage of social housing on Arran, only the significant disparity in rents between Arran and the mainland.

There are two social housing providers on Arran. Trust provides 283 and Irvine providing 59 (1). Trust provides the leads in setting Arran rents

Conclusions:

Housing Association rents on Arran are expensive, compared to North Ayrshire.

The provision on 34 NAC housing on Arran will highlight the major discrepancy in social rents for the other 342 Island residents in Social Housing.

Arran is 12 miles off the mainland. This variations in social rent would not be allowed in local areas 12 miles apart on the mainland. It is a clear example oF Public Sector inequality for an Island Community and Economy.

Social Weekly Rents for North Ayrshire

1 apt. 2apt. 3 apt. 4 apt. 5 apt

NAC (ii) £58.6 £74.8 £75.9 £72.0 £78.1

ANCO (iii) £61.1 £71.2 £82.4 £93.7 £102.8

Irvine. £62.6 £79.7 £89.8 £93.9 £99.6

Cunningham. £64.1 £77.9 £95.2 £102.8 £109.5

Trust £131.3 £120.9 £95.1 £95.6 £92.5

Arran % rent more 124% 61%. 25%. 33%. 19%

than best in NAC.

Source: (i) Housing Study

(ii) NAC: NAC website.

(iii) IHA Comparison Website.

Note: It is assumed that Trust Housing 1 and 2 Apartments provide additional services or at least they did when the rate was set.

3 Cont.

House Price Comparison, Housing Stock and Opportunities:

Average House Prices in Scotland in 2023 is £222,147 (iv)

Average House Prices in North Ayrshire in 2021 is £155,343(v)

Average House Prices on Arran is £282,666 (v).

Arran H.P 2013 2014 2015 2016 (i) 2018/19 2020/2021(v)

£182,190 £193,56 £198,199 £199,070 £225,000 £282, 666

Second Homes and Empty Homes: ( Data from Freedom of Information. Still directionally correct).

Arran has 3099 houses; 89% privately owned and 342 social housing or 11% of housing stock. Scotland equivalent is 24%. (vi)

Arran has 726 second and empty homes 23.7% of housing stock. (vi)

3 a) Arran has 86 empty homes and 640 second homes or 21% of occupied homes.(vi).

This number has increased by 37 or 6% since 2016 study.

b) Second Homes:

Scotland: Arran: Coll/Tiree: Isla/Jura/Colonsay: Iona: Bute: Highland & Orkney

1.1%. 23.4% 29.3%. 14.8% 12.6% 11.7%. 3.6%. (iii)

With the exception of Coll & Tiree , combined population of 848 (vii) Arran has the largest number of second homes in any similar mainland or Island community.

Use Revenue opportunities from Second Homes to help solve Housing crisis:

Holiday/second homes are a feature of the Arran holiday market and always have been. This will not change and is a part of our Islands history and culture. So let’s work with it.

However, at what point does the proportion of second homes and empty homes alter the nature of the community in which they exist. Is Brodick OK with 21%? Blackwaterfoot has 37%. Is this too high or is it a non- issue?

At what point does a village become a holiday dormitory?

2016 Housing Study.

(iv) Scotland Register of Housing (September)

Right Move Actual Houses prices on Arran over 12 months
Freedom of Information request.( Latest number has changed slightly)
2011 Census.

Arran’s Housing Stock including Long Term Empty, Holiday and Second Homes.Updated Information from NAC Available separately

Arran Housing Supply Analysis February 2023 (Source NAC)

Summary of Arran Housing:

56% are privately owned.

26% of Arran homes as Empty, Second or Business.

21% Of Arran homes rented ( 12% Social / 9% Private)

Demand of 91 is filtered from the General Housing Register by NAC.

Area Private Social. Empty. Second Private Total. Demand

Landlord Housing. Homes. Homes. Owners.

Blackwaterfoot 32 10 5 53 196 296 5

Brodick 68 113 29 106 387 703 36

Corrie. 12 36 10 53 53 164 7

Kilmory. 19 19 4 6 70 118 3

Lamlash. 58 149 33 139 400 779 18

Lochranza. 18 6 6 53 85 168 3

Pirnmill 7 9 3 20 54 93 3

Shiskine. 23 11 7 23 133 197 4

Whiting Bay. 45 28 39 146 387 645 12

Total 282 381 136 599 1765 3163 91

% of Total 9 12 4 19 56 100

Business 139 3302

Rates ——

738

% of Total 22

Plus Empty 4

—-

26%

Arran House Scheduled for Business Rates: (Included on previous page)

Blackwaterfoot : 8, Lochranza: 4.

Brodick: 26. Machrie: 7.

Corrie: 6. Pirnmill: 1. Total Number =139

Kildonan: 7. Shannochie: 3. Council Tax Loss = £203k/an.

Kilmory: 6. Shiskine: 13.

Lamlash: 44. Sliddery: 2.

Whitingbay: 12.

Source: Scottish Assessors

—————————————————————————————————————————

Second Homes by Band and Council Tax Contribution:

Council Tax Band. Number of Properties. Tax Rate. Tax Contribution

A 67 £895. £59,965

B 70 £1,044. £73,080

C 101 £1,193 £120,493

D 132 £1,342 £177,144

E 154 £1,764 £271,656

F 64 £2,182 £139,648

G 14 £2,692 £36,806

——– ————- 602 602 £878,79

Note:

North Ayrshire Council currently uses 40% of this income along with the income from mainland and Cumbrae second homes (905) to create an Affordable Homes fund. Various questions arise: Why is it not 100%? How is it distributed? Can we have an Island Specific allocation please, as this is where the problem is?
Tax Rate is the NAC Council Tax Rate for 2021/22.
Source: NAC.

NAC 2019 to 2024 Social Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) Summary Notes:

( Data from 2019 Analysis still used as it is still directionally correct)

The NAC Social Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) establishes operating principles. Practises and numbers. It will be a good guide as we plan ahead.

Some highlights I have extracted:

Social housing in NAC amounts to 17,645 homes.

NAC owns 73% of all North Ayrshire social housing.

Cunningham HA are the biggest HA inNAC with 12% of the housing stock.

Within NAC, Trust housing only operates in Arran with 283 houses. Irvine HA providing the other 59 houses.

NAC, with partners, will provide 1000 houses by 2022 and 1732 by 2024.NAC will provide 68% new build. Irvine and Cunningham will be 15 and 14% respectively)

Housing Needs Demand Assessment (HNDA) Highlights 66% of people requesting 1 bedroom and 20% two bedroom. For flexibility reasons this is reversed in the SHIP with 20% one bedroom and 60% two bedroom. This is similar to our assessment for

SHIP only allocated Arran 50 houses to 2024 (NAC and Trust). Despite NAC’s warm support for ADT work this may be an issue in our RIHF discussion with SG. In effect, we are saying the New SHIP is wrong and the ink is not dry. On the other hand, we have been told we will be able to adjust annually.

NAC get £57 -£59k Government funding for house building. Housing Associations get £72k per house. This may be indicative of what we will get for our development although the documentation suggested we will not be limited to this.

Rural and Island Housing Fund:

The Scottish Government recognised the special needs of Rural and Island communities. Specifically, that the cost of operating in these areas for Housings Associations and Local Authorities could be prohibitive, adding to the housing shortages that already existed in these areas.

In February 2016 the Government announced The Rural Housing Fund, followed later that year by The Island Housing Fund. For all intent and purpose, these funds are managed as one; The Rural and Island Housing Fund (RIHF).

This was announced through press releases and although no formal targets were set the announcement of £25M for Rural and £5M for Island anticipated creating 600 affordable homes in rural and Islands communities by 2021. The £30m Fund is managed by the Housing Minister, through an extension of Highland and Islands Enterprise.

This fund is now closed but a further £45m has been allocated to provide Rural and Island Housing Fund support.

How is the Fund did against its objectives?

Freedom of information requests obtained by James McEnaney informs us that the fund processed grants to build or convert 73 rural homes and 13 Island homes. They had processed applications for a further 12 homes but they did not proceed.

Based on the information from the FOI in March 2019, they have created 86 homes in Rural and Island localities against a press release target of 600. Being generous they may go up to 100 if the 12 come back in and they find another couple under the sofa.

On the money side, it looks like they have processed grants for around £5.3 million against a budget of £30 million. Most of the applications are small scale with the largest being 12 homes in Highland Region.

It was to this fund (RIHF) that we (ADT) have now processed applications for grants for 18 affordable homes. We have private financial companies prepared to provide development and exit funding including an additional 25 serviced affordable plots for self-build.

In summary, our plan is well scoped. Funds are available. We will work with RIHF and other Government agencies to help the process achieve its objectives.

The post Arran Development Trust Input to Arran Affordable Housing Task Force appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

ARG Meeting Notes on the 20th August 2021

admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 08:04:50 +0000

ARG Meeting Notes on the 20^th August.

Bill Calderwood, Tom Tracey, Andrew Stirling, Vicki Yuill, Tom Jessop, Jude King, Sheila Gilmore, Timothy Billings, Neil Arthur, Sheena Borthwick-Toomey, Linda Johnston, Alastair Dobson, Susan Foster,

Apologies from Sarah Baird, Ruth Betley, Ian Staples

Summary of Notes:

Identify Issues and Priorities for Ministerial discussion: The primary objective is to be heard above the loud voices of Island and Mainland neighbours.

Population:

Clyde Island 12% of the population and 61% of the depopulation. Arran population declined by 8% in the last Census.
Arran has 23% of housing stock empty or second homes. There are twice as many second homes as social homes. Arran has a critical shortage of affordable homes.
Arran has 139 staff shortages (HSCP, Education, Private Sector) from recent survey. Using FoA baseline data, this represents £5.4m GVA hit to the Arran economy. The private sector survey received 6.4% responses. Conservatively, 200 or £7.9m GVA is the more likely impact. Additional 200 staff needed for 2030 growth plan.
Staff shortage comparison: UK data shows that vacancies represent 2.5% of working population. On Arran it is 7% or 10%. NAC unemployment rate is joint second

highest in Scotland. Go figure?

Transport:

Clyde Islands has 21% of CalMac’s serviced population and 49% of passengers.
Ardrossan to Brodick is the busiest Ferry Passenger route in Scotland. Both pieces of data emphasise the dependency on Tourism.
Fraser of Allander study indicated that the ferry service represented £170k GVA/Day.

Economic Impact:

Fraser of Allander identified a high dependency on tourism in the Arran economy with a significantly disproportionate COVID impact on the economy and community.
Over the last two years the Arran economy reduced by 65% and 22% respectively on

2019 levels. Primarily caused by COVID restrictions, helped by poor ferry service.

Conclusion:

Most Islands suffer from Service Access Inequalities ( Transport, Health and Housing). In addition, it costs more and pays less. This is balanced by a strong sense of community and high quality of life. COVID significantly exaggerated these issues on the Islands. When negatives exceed positives, depopulation is the result. Clyde Islands are the primary source of Island depopulation.

COVID apart, the unreliability ferry service and the lack of affordable housing are the primary reason for Arran’s population decline, staff shortages and economic slowdown. The problems are significant. The response should match the scale of the problem.

Details:

The objective of the meeting was to identify and prioritise our issues supported by facts where possible and projection based on facts and stated assumptions based on papers already distributed.

Transport/Ferry: Bill, pulled together the CalMac data which is the base for much of the work. A subset of the AFC met with the Transport Minister. (Unofficial notes issued separately by Sheila). Same message delivered for 3 years +. We need a Commercial. Problem solving, Customer focused Operator with a “can do attitude) On the plus side the Minister had taken the time and was listening. A good start but we need visible measurable actions now to improve the service.

Economic Impact: Tom Jessop, using Bill’s carrying numbers as a baseline and STEAM spend data calculated the Economic Impact on Arran’s tourist economy, including carry over expenditure into other sectors. The projection is £54m for 2021 or £15m. 22% down on 2019. Add this to the 2020 impact of £45m or 65% and we have a £60m negative impact to the Arran Economy over the two years. One consistent piece of information was that almost all businesses are working below capacity because of staff shortages. This may need to be another factor added into the model. We will work on and finalize this through next week. General discussion on linking this information to other sectors through the FoA data and getting NAC do it and own it. We should be able to reference everything back to the £170 k/day Ferry Benefit to the Island. Will discuss how this can best be achieved with NAC. Tom T.

Staff Shortages: Sheila did an excellent piece of work in identifying staff shortages supported by Ruth, Susan and Shirley. In summary there are 139 identified from the survey ( Education 13, HSPC 19, VA 107). The HSCP has been running at this level for the last 3-4 years with increasing workload. Similar duration in Education. VA membership have identified a sharp increase in vacancies with many operating below capacity for the first time ever. The Primary reason for vacancies, as in every survey back to 2017, is a lack of affordable housing with the addition of Brexit and Covid. General stress caused by additional work falling on fewer people was highlighted as a significant and growing issue.

We need to do more work to extrapolate the 107 number up to reflect the position on the island’s full tourist sector and make some assumptions on the “others”. We need this to make comparisons with other Islands and the mainland. Tom T will work with Sheila on this.

Also, need to re-invigorate the Skills Training Plan and put it to actions. Alastair agreed to follow up on this.

Identify Issues and Priorities: Tom T distributed the paper with amendments added by the group. This was the basis of the discussion.

Several comments: In general the right stuff. Needs a little work to top and tail. The primary objective is to be heard above the loud voices of Island and Mainland neighbours.

Clyde Island 12% of the population and 61% of the depopulation.

Clyde Islands 21% of CalMac’s serviced population and 49% of passengers.

Ardrossan to Brodick the busiest Ferry Passenger route in Scotland.

Several comments against each of the sections which where all Strategic Objectives from NIP and as such part of the 2030 Plan.

Population: As we decrease in population so does our share of funding.

Housing: Need to give it more of a bite. Vicky, Timothy, Sheena happy to take input. If it can be made “bullety”. Alastair, suggested just support the ADT may do it as encompasses the detail but perhaps lacks the bite. More work. Will issue update next week.

Delivery Plan Update: As per Sarah’s mail:

Vicky commented that the consultation needs to avoid talk of strategy and talk about Outcomes and Actions. General agreement from the group. Folk are tired of consultations. Need to focus on specific pieces of work. Vicky would like to be involved in the Short Life Oversight Group that will be working with the communities to validate and prioritise their needs. A few folks have asked to be involved in this and as there is only one rep from each Island I will kick it off we will figure out how we can do this.

The next ARG meeting will be on the 10^th September and the primary update will be from Sarah on progress and timings with the Delivery Plan

Timothy updated the group on correspondence with Craig Hatton which recognised and supported Arran 2030 Island in Balance. Timothy also informed the group that Audrey Sutton will be off work for the next 8 months. All members of the group which Audrey well and a safe return. An interim Director will be appointed, and we will continue our Governance conversations with them.

ARG Response to Island Bond Consultation:

Paper issued earlier: General agreement with paper. Additional comment that it needed a transparent process for distribution of funds. We should use the fact that we have a 2030 Plan to attract people to the Island. That is; we have a plan for their medium- and long-term future.

Thank you for your support and engagement. The next meeting will be the 10^th

Tom Tracey 20^TH August:

P.S

Digital Connectivity: I log this an issue for discussion at a subsequent meeting. However, Andrew and Alastair asked to include it as a holding position. Data and Communications

Establish a Digital Readiness Hub, to support businesses and residents in reaping the benefits of data & digital technology [supplementing and supporting the valuable work that ACVS has been doing for vulnerable members of the community]. The hub will aim to start work on establishing a data platform accelerate moves to co-creation by empowering

(b)

Work with the community to ensure that all are included in the planning/implementation of fixed and mobile broadband network enhancements. Also work with the community on the integration of new infrastructure in an environmentally sensitive way [This includes work relating to the recently published Shared Network Plans for increasing mobile coverage – where the use of more numerous and higher masts is the traditional approach

The post ARG Meeting Notes on the 20th August 2021 appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

Notes from our ARG Meeting on the 11th June

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 12:26:35 +0000

Notes from our ARG Meeting on the 11^th June:

Summary:

COVID 19 and the Transport Service: Understanding the impact on our Island Community is high from our Local Authority, our MSP, Transport Minister and the Community Board and soon the Islands Minister and the Deputy First Minister. What we need now is focus and leadership to resolve the issues. ( May be nothing, but a 80 meter Catamaran Ferry is docking at Brodick Pier as I write).

Arran Recovery Plan will now move to the next phase with the development of the Delivery Plan. More to follow on this soon.

VOX POP puts real lived experiences in front of decision makers to show the human side to the devastating economic impacts of COVID-19 and our Transport Service. Thanks to Sheila, Jude and Chris for pulling it together as well as a big thanks to participants.

Updates on engagements to progress the Recovery. Tom/Bill/Alastair

Tom: The issues outlined in the summary document provide the basis for our changed assessment on the speed of recovery from 18 months to 2 years to 3 to 5 years.

Primary cause of reassessment is the past experience and current performance of our Transport Service. There is little or no confidence in the current structure for delivery. This needs to be urgently addressed. As the Fraser of Allander study pointed, our island economy and social structure is completely dependent upon this service. Low confidence means slow economic and social recovery and a negative impact on population.

NAC’s senior team agreed to a meeting to discuss the issues and look for resolution. The meeting was very positive, and a letter will be sent today from Joe Cullinane NAC, Ian Thomson AFC and Tom Tracey ARG to the Minister for the Islands to ask for a meeting to discuss the issues and ask for her leadership in resolving the issues.

We are pressing the right buttons and now need to establish a timescale for results

Bill:

Community Board met with senior managers from Transport Scotland, CMAL and CalMac.
Very pleased that Mr Dey MSP (Minister for Transport) joined the meeting to introduce himself and provide initial engagement from his first 6 days in office.
Confirmed he had already had discussions with his officers and met with service providers. He confirmed that the recent experiences were unacceptable.
Recognised the need for new tonnage and discussions were underway to understand what could be provided but no specific routes or vessels could be confirmed.
The need for contingency planning was emphasised and also the process for procurement and operations. Current contracts needs to provide a service. Other matters raised were the annual service and dry docking and reassurance was sought that this work was not being constrained by time.
Minister confirmed that community voices should be a key input and they should be reflected in any actions going forward.
Further discussion with the service providers built on these points and we requested visibility of any draft contingency options being considered to ensure they were comprehensive and appropriate.
CMAL gave an overview of their 3-5 year plans which are supported by the £580m funding from Government and these will be further developed.
The Community Board had submitted questions ahead of the meeting which were covered in the press, and we will follow up on these.

Alastair:

It is a complex time with many moving parts, including COVID recovery, BREXIT and a new Scottish Parliament with relevant new Ministers. Arran’s issues need to be amplified but in a way that is understood from a Local Authority, regional and national perspective. To support this, Alastair has written to John Swinney, in his position as Covid Recovery Minister. Recovery will be supported from all levels of Government JS is keen that delivery and enablement will be through LAS but at a sub local authority level. Notwithstanding all the issues above, due to the work AEG has developed with the Arran 2030 – Island in Balance Plan, Arran is in a better place than most to highlight the problems and the opportunities that will lead to sustained recovery. As such, Alastair was advocating Arran as a demonstrator case in how best to achieve recovery.

In addition, Alastair highlighted that our plan Arran 2030 Island in Balance is well regarded within government and government agencies.

With his work with the National Tourism Recovery Task Force, Alastair was also able to present the high level ambition of the Arran 2030 – Island in Balance Plan to Transport Scotland officials. Current issues, opportunities and threats were discussed with a follow up meeting to be arranged.

Agreed we needed to make sure Arran issues are amplified on a nationwide issue. To support this, Alastair has written to John Swinney, in his position as Covid Recovery Minister. Recovery will be supported from all levels of Government but will actually happen at sub local authority level. Notwithstanding all the issues above, Arran is in a better place than most to highlight the problems and the opportunities that will lead to recovery. deliver this recovery. As such, Alastair was advocating Arran as a lead case in how best to achieve recovery.

In addition, Alastair highlighted that our plan Arran 2030 Island in Balance is well regarded within government and government agencies. The Strategic Tourism Group – has provided the latest opportunity to present to the full team around recovery and growth opportunities

All: NA) We are on the right track but response is the proof, previous experience has shown fast starts fizzling out and there is a need to keep the pressure on.

TB) Council meeting there has been a robust response and more dynamism and acceptance that there is a transport problem, Concern that Troon may become port of choice

Updates on progress of the Delivery Plan: Sarah

Context: The Arran Recovery Plan provides a comprehensive statement of the programmes required to deliver the objectives of Arran 2030.The Delivery Plan will focus in on areas within the Arran Recovery Plan that are funding focusses for Governmental agencies. The ARG plan is aligned with the Objectives of the National Islands Plan. Therefore, in time, all areas will become focus areas.

Sarah delivered a short presentation on the Delivery Plan. Highlighted items from the presentation:

The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 introduces a number of measures to ensure that there is a sustained focus across Government and the public sector to meet the needs of island communities now and in the future
Implementation Route map with input from Islands Stakeholders published March 2021 – Living document to shape policies
SG published an NIP Annual Report, outlining progress and spend. Would hope next year projects from Arran will be featured.
Islands Strategic Group – membership is comprised of council leaders and the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands
Ministers set up NIP Delivery Group that will support implementation of the Plan and ensure that work is driven forward in a collaborative way that truly involves island communities. Sarah confirmed she sits as a member on the Delivery Group, ensuring the voices of NA Island communities are strengthened at local and national level.
Having Arran 2030 Island in Balance plan and Sarah in post, puts us in a strong position to feed into Islands Strategic Group and Delivery Group
Sarah is a member of both island Locality Partnerships (Arran and North Coast & Cumbrae), works across council services including regeneration/transport/housing/growth & investment to ensure that current and future Council activity and policy is island-proofed including maximising the potential of major programmes of investment in North Ayrshire.
Sarah has regular pilot progress meetings with SGov and HIE
Currently participating in a working group looking at population zones to address population decline
The Arran Recovery Plan provides a comprehensive statement of the programmes required to deliver the objectives of Arran 2030. The ARG plan is aligned with the Objectives of the National Islands Plan, in time, all areas will become focus areas.
Currently drafting the island plan much of which will be lifted from Arran Recovery plan with national and stakeholder input added
Island Programme funding coming on stream soon – £30M investment form SG Infrastructure investment plan – capital/infrastructure funding covering transformation and well-being projects
NAC applied to UK Community Renewal Fund for an Island Green Programme – an NA islands specific integrated package of 3 projects – business support fund/accelerating towards net-zero and an island connectivity study.
TT asked if because plan not ready would that prevent Arran accessing the £30M fund – Sarah confirmed no and that we should be developing projects and going for funding now as projects will fit in with, and align to the plan in its development.
Sarah hopes this provides some context as we progress with the development of the island plan. She then provided a timeline indicating the key milestones this year and that it was important that Arran recognises this is the island communities plan and not a local authority or government plan. It is key that the work of the Locality Planning Partnership in undertaking their priority refresh is considered and that it’s essential the priorities identified are included in the island plan.

BC 17^th June is next locality meeting TB will ask for Island Governance to be put on agenda. Meeting agreed that we need clear guidance and leadership to support the delivery of the plan. TT suggested that the next scheduled meeting on the 25^th June could be a face to face (or as much as possible) to help further development of The Delivery Plan.

The formal meeting ended at 11.00 am

AOB/ Vox Pop: Context: Lots of numbers, now need real life experience input from Islanders.

All: Heart felt inputs from a cross section business, community and age groups These are honestly held beliefs and would be generally supported across the Island.They are therefore real and should be shared. if those beliefs are not correct, they can be addressed separately but they indicate people’s perception.

Next steps: Agreement from participants for further distribution. A cover note will be added to explain the exceptional circumstances and then shared with media outlets.

Brodick Hall: Brodick hall transfer of ownership is a key issue it is the islands key community facility, consultation was done at a poor time, a stand needs to be taken against ongoing community ownership and management of assets. If ongoing costs are going to be covered elsewhere why not for Brodick Hall. Suggestions to Tom on how to progress this issue

Regards Tom

14/06/21

The post Notes from our ARG Meeting on the 11th June appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

Notes from the ARG Meeting on the 30th April, 2021

admin — Mon, 10 May 2021 15:52:08 +0000

The Problem:

CalMac/CMal does not have the capital or labour to provide their contracted service. In addition and by design, there is a lack of commercial problem-solving and customer service ethos. That is; no measurements of their impact on the communities they service.

The Impact on Arran:

Again, Arran’s Recovery is impacted by a continuing deterioration in the level of service. This is manifest in lost revenue, reduced quality of life, increased cost, depopulation, and inability to attract new residents. Redeployment of existing ferry capacity has meant this year is worse than last year.

What needs to be done:

Immediately: Highlight the issue to senior levels of Government. This has started with Marc Crothall and Frances Pacitti, HIE, and Governmental organisations.

Short term: Need support from NAC to keep the FoA study alive and provide analytical data on non-economic issues. In addition, progress feasibility study into providing additional passenger capacity.

Medium-term: Ministerial-level review of the current situation and the creation of a resilience plan, that is in the public domain, that shows how we resolve/mitigate these issues.

More detail Notes:

Health and Social Care Capacity:

We will assume that we have no HSPC capacity constraints unless we are informed of them by Ruth and the team.
Meeting on Tuesday to review what the “Pathway” is for folks who have tested positive on the Island. The meeting should identify a) Rules b) Protecting Availability. C) Funding. It is assumed that this is not a critical capacity constraint at this time as there is enough accommodation capacity available in the short term.

Demand Capacity:

Business: Auchrannie has identified £83k of losses from the current disruption. If this is increased pro-rata for accommodation providers, it would be approximately £500k loss of business. Total losses from day-trippers and support services would be significantly higher.
Accommodation providers asked to try and encourage demand away from the weekend and onto midweek. Likewise, divert freight to the Lochranza route.
Community: This lack of ferry availability is also impacting the community’s quality of life and ultimately encouraging people to leave and preventing people from relocating. Anecdotal evidence needs to be quantified with help from CC, Arran CVS, and HSCP with support from NAC.

Ferry :

Two meetings with Transport Scotland and CalMac revealed what they cannot do:
No extra capacity on the Brodick route between now and 17^th
No prospect of a Bookable service on the Lochranza route.
What CalMac will/may do:
“Endeavor” to do clear any backlog on the Lochranza Route on the day.
Look at using live Social Media updates to inform potential customers of availability.
Provide clarity on the operation of the 80/20, 90/10 rule.
A non-bookable service is of very limited value to accommodation providers.
Accepting the limitation between now and the 17^th of May, there is a need for a strategic contingency plan that either adds capital or labour into the current mix to allow extra capacity for these ongoing issues.
Another meeting with CalMac Transport Scotland is being organized for next week.
AFC will seek an urgent meeting with the Transport Minister as soon as he is appointed after the forthcoming elections.

Regards

Tom

The post Notes from the ARG Meeting on the 30th April, 2021 appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

Notes from Arran Recovery Group March 12th

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 10:06:12 +0000

Summary:

The group welcomed Sarah Baird as the Senior Island Officer in this new post. Sarah and the new position have everyone’s full support.
Arran 2030,Island in Balance. The new and last name change for The Island Plan.
Revision 8 of ‘Arran 2030,Island in Balance’, will not be complete until the 19^th
Population decline and demographic means that we do not start in Balance. Lack of Affordable housing remains the primary cause.
Programmes to achieve Balance are in line with National Island Plan Objectives.
“COVID 19 and CalMac have a critical effect on every business. COVID 19 has had the biggest impact on Island businesses, ever.”
Once CO2 baseline has been established, funding will be required to drive net zero by 2030. For what and how much, to be determined.
Community Empowerment and the organisations and Governance that go with it, will be key to Implementing The Islands Plan and the Locality Planning Principles.

Notes from the Meeting:

Apologies from Ruth, Susan and Vicki

Welcome:

Welcome to Sarah Baird and Heather Gough: We have been pushing for a Senior Island Officer for years but fortunately it did not happen, until now. With Islands legislation and implementation plan, this is the right time to create a role that combines the work of NAC, HIE and the Scottish Government.

Everybody introduced themselves to Sarah who commented that she was very happy to be in the new role and was looking forward do giving support to Arran and Cumbrae, providing a strong voice and access to available funding.

Recap on where we started and where we are: Tom

Start Point:

Began with the Arran Economic Group (AEG) in July 2019 looking at 2030 outcomes Getting historic information and then projected forward 10% increase in population and 20% tourism increase 50k traffic movements. The task was to define how to mitigate negatives and propagate positives. To ensure we were on the right track we had a public meeting in Jan 20 with more planned for March. Then COVID. Followed up by 2 survey’s 1200 respondents with over 40k separate inputs which confirmed the direction and prioritised the programmes.

Arran Recovery Group formed as a tactical group and the 2030 plan was woven into a Recovery Plan. This should now move back to the Strategic work of the AEG, with the ARG picking up on the tactical work of safely starting and optimising the economy and community.

Arran 2030, Island in Balance: Metrics

By popular acclaim the plan is now called ‘Arran 2030, Island in Balance’. I suggest this remains the name as long current members of the team are involved.

Balance will be measured using four Metrics: Quality of Life,(QoL) Gross Value Add (GVA) Population and the new metric of CO2. We have no baseline for CO2 and there will be work started to develop this. Our data for GVA growth and QoL put us in a good position. Our population data tells us that we are in an unsustainable position, economically and socially. That is, we start in a position that is NOT in balance.

Programmes:

To achieve the required ‘Balance’ we have identified 14 programmes that are already established or are being established and are outlined in the The Plan. These programmes broadly agree with the 13 Objectives outlined in the National Island Plan.

Conclusion: Lots of voluntary work gone into getting the plan to this place. Specific thanks to Jude and Sheila in helping to pull it together. Sarah’s arrival will help us get focussed on the priorities and making it happen. Revision 8 Concluded March 19^th.

House Keeping:

Please supply updates to document in the format of the plan document. Ideally Current State, Future State, How we move from Current to Future (Programmes) with supporting metrics and timescales. All of this on one page is be really helpful. Hyperlinks to a website or detailed plan can be added for those that need more information.

Sustainable Economy: Alastair.

Update now lodged using Current State, Future State method.

Future state Arran is recognised as an exemplar of economic development and environmental champions who embrace 3^rd sector start-ups. Feedback on matrix and the overall Plan has been congratulatory, confirming our direction of travel.

Specific points:

Covid and Calmac have/are critically affecting all business.
Business support, public transport and housing are significant issues.
No Arran Business Development Plan and lack of commercial development understanding
Ensure commercial activity is environmentally neutral in the future.
Set up group of doers to develop Business Development Plan, Look at funding from a sectoral view.
Relations with Council and Gov have improved as a result of AEG group.
Need to increase number HIE supported businesses Employee-owned businesses.
Ensure businesses have a net zero plan.
Need to recognise Covid has had most negative impact ever.
Help coming to VisitArran and Food and Drink sector from SMAS. Need to understand and engage with non VisitArran businesses.

Group comments
TB: Need to understand Arran’s economy being the basis for everything else we do.
AD: Working Age population are being the most effected, in QoL survey (2019) no under 30’s responded about quality of live.
14: Critical pillars are key to supporting each other and maintaining population.
Getting digital right is key to make economy work.

Transport: Bill/Claire 10 min
STPR2 Strategic Transport Projects Review will focus on land-based transport, Active and Passive. For both land and sea-based transport, equality of access is a fundamental principle that needs to be central to all plans.

Claire will focussed on land-based transport Strategy. Bill will stick with the sea-based issues on behalf of AFC.

Ferry Ardrossan needs to be started as quickly as possible timetabled Sept 2022.
Ardrossan berth would be closed by 18-19 months.
Glen Sannox in service Autumn 2022 update expected next month.
Gourock linkspan refurb now completed but needs a long-term plan.
Caley Isles reaches its end-of-life Gov funding allocated to replace enough vessels to cover this so aim to have 2 relatively new vessels within the next 10 years

Group comments

LJ : Have resilience problems been identified and is there a plan to resolve them taking account of continuing deterioration.
BC: Stats shared with CalMac for them to develop a mitigating plan. Asked them to reconsider effectiveness of annual maintenance programme. Hope for update at next week’s AFC Meeting.
NA: Booking system closed to move things over due to Covid. BC helped get it sorted.
BC: Terminals closed out with sailing times due to misuse by non-ferry use visitors.
TT: Need for separate tactical discussion around various Ferry and Demand and Supply issues ahead of opening up the Island.

Environmental Programmes: Jude

Jude commented that The Environmental sections of the plan had not changed significantly from the last revision and folks had just been getting on with it. However, to fully achieve all the goals and objectives more finance and support was needed.

We need a carbon audit to establish a CO2 baseline.
Followed by metrics and targets and probably more programmes to achieve net zero by 2030. Eco Savvy is supporting Jude in establishing the baseline.

Group Comments

CB: Food like many other areas cuts across many sectors e.g. Sustainable Economy, Health and Wellbeing etc. It needs to be included across the various programmes.

TT: Likewise, Third Sector and work of ACVS appears in several areas and needs to be included in the relevant areas.

Community Empowerment: Timothy:
Timothy has issued a paper and has received a few comments in response and much more discussion is needed. Please get in touch with Timothy if you want to be involved in this group. The issue is integrating the work of the various groups to coalesce around a plan that:

Recognises the NAC and NIP programmes and priorities.
Integrates these with the Island Priorities.
Creates a structure and Governance process, based on Locality Planning, that incorporates all of the above and produces/endorses a Plan for the Island.

We have all the pieces of the jigsaw to make this work. We just need some leadership help to join them together.

Group Comments

NA: There is some confusion and for all bodies to be properly constituted.

Community Council has been statutory body We now have Locality Planning as well

Not sure we are pushing in the same direction as we should and if we all understand each other’s roles.

TT: Locality Planning will be the primary way localities determine their priorities, futures and budgets. How localities organise within this framework should be determined by the Locality and the Local Authority. In keeping with the principles of Locality Planning, this should be bottom up rather than top-down process.
Linda: Essential that we find a way for everyone to be represented though the process and it should not be too political.
SB: Commented that her role is to ensure we all pull together and that we get the island plan that we all want.

Arts & Culture: Heather

Plan and matrix have been updated. Arran is massively creative, but infrastructure is behind, only Island that doesn’t have an exhibition centre. This would positively impact on visitor economy and wellbeing. Need an arts coordinator beyond current two days. Working towards making this full time and longer term a permanent exhibition centre.
Post Covid need to build back events and community engagement.

Group Comments

SBT – Looking at community asset transfer possibilities and exhibition centre could be part of that.

Others:

Housing– Good work by on housing. ADT at a critical point.

Digital connectivity– Andrew would like to set up a team to solidify plan. Along with ACVS and Community Council. Please contact Andrew directly.

Education – Plan updated: Outdoor Centre has been done and will be added.

What does an increasing population do to various school years?

The post Notes from Arran Recovery Group March 12th appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

Arran Recovery Group Meeting 12th Feb 2021

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 11:41:55 +0000

Neil Arthur, Tom Tracey, Timothy Billings, Vicki Yuill, Cameron Bruce, Bill Calderwood, Sheila Gilmore, Andrew Stirling, Linda Johnston, Sheena Borthwick- Toomey, John Maguire, Jude King, Susan Foster. Lucinda Gray. Guest: Louise Kirk

Apologies: Ruth Betley

Summary:

The objective is to update our current plan to the next revision by March 12 and integrate programmes with NIP Objectives, providing an ‘asset register’ of Arran programmes that support the delivery of NIP Objectives.

Great progress made by some sections from Health and Social Care plan complete, to draft plans updated and requiring further review in Environment and Education to setting up review group in Economy and Business and everything in between.

I possible/appropriate, include one major metric for your programme e.g. GVA, Quality of Life, CO2 levels. Need help from NAC to establish Arran CO2 baseline.

STR2 will form the basis of medium- and long-term Transport Strategy.

Governance is an issue that needs some urgent attention. Integration of the various players may be relatively simple and a great win for the new Island Manager.

Please provide your summary of programmes as you complete them. I will issue a weekly summary status against each programme, based on your input.

We will conclude by March 12^th. Anything that does not make this revision will be included in the next, which hopefully the Senior Island Manager will oversee.

Thanks for everyone’s hard work in getting us this far. I am sure it is appreciated by all involved. It gives us a unique picture of what is happing across the Island, now and in the future, to improve our community, environment and economy.

Tom Tracey

2 Community

Health: Tom from Ruth’s written input. NIP Objective 7

Arran Recovery and Beyond: One-page summary complete and ready to go.

Arran Pandemic Response – Update.

The small number of cases have further reduced on Arran
Must continue to follow FACTS
Preparing for the return of schools
Local health and social care staff are testing using Lateral Flow Testing followed up by PCR at Brodick Testing centre if required
Low levels of requests from Arran community for Testing – need to encourage people to use the testing centre
The testing centre will remain on Arran for at least another 12 months. Separate staffing now in place for the Testing centre and Contact Tracing.
The vaccination programme has given the first dose to Care home residents; frontline health and social care staff; Over 70s and 80s; clinically vulnerable and shielding and all housebound patients. Mass vaccination clinics held at Arran High School. The next cohort will be 50-70s. Arran are ahead of the national programme and this is down to the excellent effort of the local team
Staff are weary and it has been a very long 12 months for health and social care teams. Mental health support and staff wellbeing are key.
Vaccination is the light at the end of the tunnel but COVID 19 is endemic and we will need to make sustainable plans to deliver vaccines as we do for Flu – work underway to plan for this.

Question Open for Ruth: What is the testing process for returning school children.

Arran CVS Overview: Vicki Yuill. Work maps to at least 4 NIP objectives

Good update from Vicki on the current and future work of Arran CVS. The presentation is attached and provides an overview of both the network and the work of ACVS. This will form the basis of the next revision for Arran Recovery and Beyond plan.

A few takeaways, More detail in the attached documents:

ACVS a) Provides support backbone service for Third Sector organisations and advocacy at both Local and Scottish Government levels.

b) It provides activities directly in support of identified need, fitting with charitable objectives e.g. Alcohol and Drug research collaborative, social isolation projects

The work of ACVS supports at least 4 of the NIP Objectives.
Strategic objective Separate document to be circulated
Volunteering in North Ayrshire/ Arran contributed £63m of value in time.
Community Zoom Facility set up and available to all groups/training provided– Should be useful for this group and subgroups.
Community forum feedback- Looking to provide a service for most socially isolated and support for people who have been isolated in returning to activity
Set up an overarching community transport programme- to provide equity of access for people facing barriers to social transport.
Support development of role for community outreach worker, alcohol & drugs

Education: Susan Foster. NIP Objective 12

Susan provided a very helpful update on the 4 areas within the Education section: The current plan has been changed but all the changes have not been shared with colleagues yet so is not available to share but it’s close.

Update on current issues:

Education is uncertain plan a blended approach.
Plan B all in
Then plan C all out.
Plan D blended mode P1, p2 p3 plus senior pupils to undertake practical work.
SQA uncertainty over taking examinations.
Need SDS but limited access as many pupils go on to do apprenticeships ships in hospitality and construction.
Priorities to get primary pupils back in
Early years provision centres preparing to meet the increased demand for 3–4-year-olds, will need extra staff to make this work. Brodick priorities are a need for funding and a centre.
Primary using seesaw pre-recorded learning sessions. High school is using various platforms, often fall offline. Upskilling taking place to improve the effectiveness of online learning.
Support received to increase digital access.
Health and wellbeing provision is a priority through various programs, a number of youngsters are struggling.
Argyll college unlikely to reopen until August but online is working well for them.
The education landscape has changed, with some opportunities but a different way of working.
Digital infrastructure is still weak. Digital tools a mixed bag but getting better. Digital support has been fantastic but is under threat and would be very damaging if lost.

Group input

Message received by Councillor Billings and will input into budget setting at NAC.

Arran Skills Plan could be updated and bought back into use, it needs to make sense to AHS and taken to SDS to make things happen. Not clear who owns this.

Community Council: Neil Arthur: Could map to NIP Objective13

Neil, being new to the process is absorbing the information ahead of developing a specific plan. However, very Interested in the Islands manager role and Islands plan and Recovery / 2030 plan

Likes the idea that everybody works towards those plans. CC ready to play its part in developing, monitoring and implementing these plans and objectives

Group input

CC has a key role to play to bring information back from villages/communities and to recognise the value of volunteers.

Metrics are important to drive plan

Environment, Jude King Maps to NIP Objectives 8,9
Jude provided a slide presentation and clear updates to the existing plan in the 4 areas covered by the Specific areas covered:

Food localisation Plan

Land improvement use ongoing.
Carbon audits ongoing
Integrated supply chain work done through COVID, woodside farm vending machine bid successful.
Arran Milk Zero waste Scotland funding approved.
Working to establish metrics for ‘Use more local food by restaurants’
Engage with Ayrshire CWB more reporting needed.
Education AES and AFJ results announce in March around behaviour change
Carbon reduction, need a carbon baseline
Needs to be part of a wider Arran App
Labelling system for carbon Arran could be a pilot for this could start in April subject to

Funding.

Circular economy

Food waste composting program being explored.
Covid has prevented Repair Reuse and Repair, ARCAS and Arran for sale and wants are finding ways to continue online. Platforms being explored to aid this.
Food share has remained at the COOP and looking at how that can evolve post-pandemic.
Community café idea still a possibility post-Covid

Energy and Buildings

Arran Community Renewables is looking at increasing renewable generation on the Island. Although there have been some significant challenges, progress is still being made.
Not many updates on other areas of the plan. Need to be clear who is delivering the updates.

Land and Nature Restoration

Flood and resilience plan to be shared in the final version of the plan.
Deforestation Arran has a catastrophic impact form infected Larch. Progress with NTS and ACLI and other organisations. Arran Geo Park progressing their objective of gaining UNESCO status.

Marine Environment

COAST to report at another meeting. Objectives in the plan unlikely to change although timescales and metrics to be added.

Group input

Although the environmental issues above are covered by two specific Objectives in the NIP, Environment runs through Islands Plan in every Objective.

Some dissatisfaction about how Pioneer Project has been set up using a council adopted single track road as no pre-consultation before the site was set up. Jude will pass the contact details of the person managing the programme to Neil, who will work it with them directly.

Observation: While on the face of it, this issue might seem trivial, it is not. This is a real example of the ‘Balance’ principle being brought into sharp relief: A very local community has to decide on environmental/amenity gain v possible community disruption. Interesting, could boil down to an issue of communication.

4 Economy: Alastair Dobson. Maps to NIP Objective 2.

Alastair is in the process of setting up a focussed business group with support from NAC and HIE to feed into the Arran Recovery and Beyond by 12^th March.

General comments:

This group is vital to support solving problems raised within the various sections.
All other sections of this plan crosscut with and affect economic recovery.
Arran businesses have been impacted more than the rest of Scotland in part due to our hospitality sector being the dominant player.
Should recognise the responsible behaviour of our businesses and employers.
Most infections are driven from retail, not hospitality, need for bigger retailers enforce the behaviour of the community in their stores.
Need to protect and grow our tourism industry in a safe and sustainable way and we should also look to broaden our business base beyond tourism.

5 Affordable Housing, Sheena Borthwick: NIP Objective 1 and 4

Sheena confirmed that the Arran Development Trust (ADT) are on track with short- and medium-term plans for affordable housing on Arran. Updates will be made to the current Arran Recovery and Beyond plan. Outlined below are a summary highlights of recent activity:

Planning permission granted for 18 affordable homes at Rowarden.
The tender process now completed after separating into 9 work packages and have come in in line with Budget
Work on the first site to start in April, Houses will have solar panels and rent levels set at reasonable
Accommodation providers have provided competitive rates for workforce following an intervention by VistArran. This helps keep the overall build costs down.
First tendering process will provide a good cost template for the second site
Serviced self-build plots to be made available that will only be useable as full-time residential properties with a burden in the title to prevent the use as second homes.

Group Input

When the project started no plan for new affordable houses on Arran. NAC Social Housing Islands Needs Plan (SHIP) now has 50 by 2021. The first 34 of these will be in Brathwic and will be very welcome. Every sector of Arran community and economy is short of workforce largely driven by a lack of affordable housing. It is also a primary driver in the depopulation of working-age residents and the inability to recruit.

NAC is going to consult on Arran specific rental policy for Brathwic. This could potentially favour locals or those who come to Arran for work. Aim to revisit those that have been on the housing list long term. No decision yet on how/if this will work. Until it changes, existing rules apply.

6 Transport, Louise Kirk: NIP Objective 3

Louise Kirk gave a very useful update to the group on the development of the new strategic plan and how the Arran Community could get involved. The presentation is attached and Survey links sent separately. A summary of some of the discussion is outlined below. Clearly, this STR2 process and everything that flows from it will provide the input to the Medium and Term Transport Strategy that will be used at a local level in the Arran Recovery and Beyond and the NIP Objective 3.

National Transport Strategy sets out priorities and feeds into strategic transport review
Regional Transport groups working to direct policies
STR2 extensive stakeholder engagement. Consultation on Pri0rities for next 2-3 year.Next phase for the next 17 years, part of the growth deal project to look at regional transport needs
Regional strategy by SPT last updated in 2008 A lot of improvements have come from the SPT programme
Local transport strategy 2015 due to be updated 2020 but delayed because of delays to National and Regional strategies and Covid-19, will include an active travel plan. Existing LTS sets out a range of actions in relation to Arran.
STPR2 Consultants have worked through the feedback obtained to the public consultation to date including options generation to identify priorities. Consultation live now on TS website until 31 March.
Topography poses some challenges with Brodick to Lamlash active travel route, discussions ongoing with the funder, Sustrans.
Brodick to Corrie, ongoing engagement with NTS, good support from Sustrans for this route.

Group Discussion

Tom thanked Louise for her comprehensive update in a very short space of time and welcomed her back at any time for another update.

7 Digital Technology, Andrew Stirling Maps to NIP objective 6

Andrew provided a baseline template to open the discussion which he will now take up with other interested parties. Themes for further discussion are:

Arran Digital Future and Vision.
Getting data and communications in the right place
Data Comms Connectivity Skills
Arran Digital Twin
Connectivity – Create a local pot to fill significant gaps
Digital skills for all – Digital hub to support businesses and organisations – Local digital champions. Already working with Arran CVS to deliver support in the community.
Vision – Opportunity to diversify beyond tourism; Arran mobility app . Arran Food App – foster a circular economy and reduce waste.

Group discussion

Test ideas with those that can input cuts across many of the group’s activities.

8) Governance : Timothy Billings. Maps to NIP objective 13

Timothy has created a discussion paper ahead of updating the existing Governance section in the plan. This will be circulated for wider discussion. Highlights of the main topics that are being looked at:

NAC developing locality approach Islands Mgr. will need a clear understanding of how all the organisations fit together
NAC developing a locality hub model. How does this fit?
How to make it real – How does community link into this, what it will mean for individuals, how will they engage, how to have community development and cohesion how do all groups link into this.
A paper will be circulated – How do we see existing groups CC AEG Locality Partnership liking together and join up with plan. Please feedback and then we can use it to have a wider discussion.
The community council take control of engaging with communities with others feeding in. They have the remit to make sure it is happening and members have input

Group discussion

Islands manager will be the key person to drive this
Linking groups together will make the individual parts much stronger eg. Beekeepers group can also have a role in accessibility and mental wellbeing

9) Communication: Sheila Gilmore. Maps to NIP objective 13.

Sheila confirmed the communication plan was in progress. Highlights of discussion:

Communications plan, important to see everything interlinked.
We don’t have Arts and Culture Fuel Poverty that are in NIP. Should we add them or cover them in another section. Sheila to take soundings and recommend.
If we are updating the plan in March something should go in the national media
Put all comms through central comms to have continuity of communication.

10 Conclusion: Tom Tracey

Thanks to the team for this mammoth exercise and everyone appreciated the hard work that went into it, remarkable.

The post Arran Recovery Group Meeting 12th Feb 2021 appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.

Arran Recovery Group Meeting – Jan 22nd 2021

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 12:51:33 +0000

Arran Recovery Group Meeting notes 22/1/21

Summary:

Arran will have lost approximately £35m or 50% less tourist income in Calendar 2020. This is our best estimate based on ferry passenger numbers.
Business is now unlikely to open before April. This will mean only 4 months of trading in Fiscal 2020/21. Not possible to overstate the impact on tourist infrastructure over the long term. At best, dept will increase and repayments extend, reducing the ability for future investment. We will continue to push for special financial support for Islands in general and Arran in particular.
Full impact on the community is still to be realized. Front line folks have the pressures of too much to do, others the opposite. Both very stressful.
As the new year begins, we need to refocus; away from a reactive operational agenda, to implementing the programmes in: ‘Arran Recovery and Beyond ‘.We will return to a more reactive agenda, in separate discussions, as the needs arise
Vaccine roll out over the weekend provides a welcome light at the end of the tunnel.

Present: Tom Tracey, Alastair Dobson, Linda Johnston, Cameron Bruce, Sheila Gilmore, Jude King, Vikki Yuill, Bill Calderwood, Susan Foster, Sheena Borthwick Andrew Stirling, Timothy Billings, John Maguire, Daryll Urquhart-Dickson.

Apologies: Ruth Betley, Ian Staples, Lucinda Gray.

Welcome and Introduction

Update from Sheena – Planning permission granted for the site at Rowarden, some standard conditions to planning. Build costs at or around budget. Good progress on this key change initiative.

Visitor Economy Economic Outlook – Cameron’s work on visitor numbers, based on passenger numbers, suggest that visitor volume is down by – 60% in 2020. Revenue is down by – approximately 50%. The difference is a change in visitor profile. i.e. less day visitors. This gives an estimated spend of £35m in 2020 compared with £69m in 2019

STEAM data will allow a more accurate assessment and is expected in April May

Taking a step back

Update

The current agenda reflects work done since May and has been reactive and operational, through necessity. For this new year, we need to refocus, implementing the programmes in ‘Arran Recovery and Beyond ‘.
We will return to a more reactive agenda, in separate discussions, as the needs arise.
Monthly meetings with core update on: Community, Environment, Business. Community probably should be Health and Social Care and the wider Community. Ideally, each should have a coordinator. Jude for Environment, Alastair for Business and Ruth for HSCP are relatively easy. The wider Community will need more discussion.

Actions in one area impact others. So, the idea is to keep everyone up to speed with progress and get support as required. This keeps everyone up to speed and provides the basis for wider community communication. This should not slow any communications already planned

All of this is in the wider context of appointment of Islands Manager (IM) who will be in place mid-March. ARG will have two meetings ahead of this on the 12^th Feb 12^th March to ensure we have an updated plan to support the IM.

Group input

This will give better balance to the work of the group. The plan is bold and brave and needs to be put in the front of the ARG website rather than reports of ARG meetings. Senior Managers at NAC are on board. ARG should be involved in the IM announcement.
Everybody’s responsibility to make sure the document reflects what is happening in their area and is relevant and updated. It also needs to be easily found on the ARG and other websites.
There was discussion around confusions on the name of the plan. Referring to it as one thing and then another. I for one have been guilty of this. It has led to the mistaken believe that there are multiple plans. To be clear, there is only One Plan. It is called; ‘Arran Recovery and Beyond’, There was a link to it on our last Community Survey, so it is already public. I have attached the PDF for clarification. If we want to change the name at the next Rev, we can.

Communications Jude/Sheila

Update

Public meeting has not happened yet but still planned and needs to be done to include community and focus in on areas of greatest concern:
1. Mental health that had good output form ACVS getting info into the Banners, 2.Transport update still in the planning.

Group Input

Now is the most important time to get communication right with start of IM imminent. This can be achieved by highlighting 2-3 key areas. Need to involve IM in future communication activity. Community wants to hear about direction and progress in simple form.
Meetings with NAC about Arran Recovery and Beyond – focus on land-based transport i.e. roads and active travel. Russel McCutcheon has assigned a person to work on this. We need to create an overall Island Transport plan led by NAC.
Group needs to familiarise, scrutinise and own The Plan. Community needs updating. Meeting notes could be more related to plan. Only one form of communication.

Business Linda/ Sheila

Update

Businesses closed with no opportunity to get restarted any time soon so not making any announcements, now closed for 6 months with an expectation of another 2 out of the last 12 months.
Borrowing to fund fixed costs as level of support is not sufficient yet this will need to be paid back and will impact on future product investment.
Hoping for further announcement of a one-off grant, there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we need to get there.

Some businesses have not had funding as yet, Impact is as great on small businesses as large even though the financial scales are different. SG offering help with identifying correct funding. There is a vast array of funds that are difficult to navigate and insufficient.

Market readiness – It will be harder for businesses to restart the longer this goes on. Businesses just trying to survive, Supply chain is also on its knees.

Arran’s whole economy relies on visitors, this needs to be understood, Level 3 will not enable businesses to reopen it is more dangerous to open up at this level if operating costs are higher than being closed and would-be taking business from others who could survive on it

Group input

Retail and Hospitality funding will include Arran businesses, the cut off on rateable value is £51k there is a huge difference between a business at this level and a large business such as Auchrannie but there is no gradient in funding.
NAC is getting a discretionary fund but trying to spot the gaps is difficult with changing criteria of other funds.
Self catering fund is also coming. Top up for hospitality businesses doesn’t relate to B&B’s and self-catering businesses Caravan parks and campsites because other funds are expected for them but not yet announced ( A lot of these will now also be getting 4 weekly top up payment) Those who qualify for top ups will receive an email and finance expected to arrive by Weds 27^thRetail properties will get 6k or 9K payments going today.
Other Island communities in level 3 are getting level 4 support, Arran should be able to access this as principle already set.

Ferry Status – Bill

Update

December numbers hopefully formalised next week
Single vessel as of today
Gourock link span is progressing and barge should arrive over the weekend weather dependant, should be operational in 3 -4 weeks.

Group input

Discussions improved plans for the dry dock period next year have started and plans to do more locally and get contracts signed earlier are progressing. The Ferry committee is keeping the pressure up on this and we need to be aware of impact on our vessels from incidents across the network.
Cannot lose sight of the fact that there is still no apparent plan for stranded passengers in the event of Ferry Failures through weather or mechanical difficulties. Will bring this up at the next ARG/NAC meeting to get clarity on who is responsible. Not a problem at the moment obviously but we need to know the answer before we are in the problem.

External Agencies Alastair

Update –

Arran Recovery and Beyond: ( For presentation purposes, Alastair has renamed The Plan ‘Arran Island in Balance ‘ in presentations to SG.) It have been very well received and is a very useful tool to present to agencies showing Arran with one voice. The Project/Program review document, extracted from The Plan answers the question: “If we gave you £5m what would you do with it.”?

A SG sponsored wellbeing and place based steering group has been set up which Alastair is inputting to.
HIE and NAC are joint funding IM role so this is strategically important opportunity to engage with them particularly HIE.
NAC good engagement on Arran Recovery Plan which positions Arran strongly
When NAC appoints a person to be responsible for a workstream we need to give them the right work to do

Group Input

Need to be aware when dealing with non-NAC leads on AEP they may not be aware that Arran comes under HIE and UHI and not the normal Ayrshire bodies.

Action CB to recirculate proposals for projects, they are valued and mapped against CWB They are split short and long term projects

AOB

Arran CVS update -Vikki

Connecting Scotland 20 Ipads handed out with 10 digital champions giving support Bid in for further 10 to support low-income families with schoolchildren

Alcohol and Drug study reached phase 5 with output supported by multi-disciplinary steering group. Excellent feedback from report as it captures hidden problems and what happens on other islands
Most of our addiction support services are on the mainland which can be very problematic, particularly when we have ferry disruptions. To solve this we need Arran based support: – Job spec written for a combined full time role that will enable other support to be offered. For example, direct support to individuals and families affected by alcohol and drug use and a single point of contact for all for all services for information, co-ordination and training.
Prior to the Christmas period, Community groups and Arran CVS arranged circulation of information on support services and community activities to be delivered to every household via volunteers, enduring everyone was reached and well informed of who to contact if required.

Group Input

Good progress being made on these very important community issues.

Outdoor centre Update – Daryll

Working with young people of key workers. Hub is at status quo provided 25 emergency hampers, financial support and prescriptions
Feedback from Christmas period – People have been using it Ian and Daryll manned the hub over Christmas to provide continuity

Group input

Good to see the Outdoor Centre is still providing the community Hub while getting back to working with young people.

AHS Update -Susan

Time with Outdoor Centre alleviates amount of time young people spend sitting in front of screens
55 Chrome books and internet connections given out to ensure young people have online learning. IT support post offering help to overcome difficulty of accessing online platforms
Health and Wellbeing important therefore offering weekly drop ins.
Uncertainty for SQU students evidence based or teacher assessed not yet determined
Learning has been consistent apart from fortnight of Covid outbreak
Use of no coverage hotspots for students would be useful, Mobile has been a solution

Group input

Andrew offered to help if required with poor connectivity issues.
Another great example of adaptability in teaching methods combining with new technology, and new logistics to give us the best results possible.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Regards

Tom Tracey, 25^th January

The post Arran Recovery Group Meeting – Jan 22nd 2021 appeared first on Arran Recovery Group.