Small community has suffered without affordable homes

Charity is to build the first affordable homes on a tiny Inner Hebridean island for 20 years.

Colonsay Community Development Company (CCDC), formed in 2000, will build nine new homes in the first phase of construction.

Two homes in the first building phase will be offered for sale at a cost between £125,000 and £140,000 while the others will be offered for rent.

Only 125 people currently live on Colonsay with the hope that the new builds will encourage more people to the island.

It has been proposed to make four two-to-three-bedroom homes available for rent of between £450 and £500 a month, and three serviced self-build plots are to be sold for about £25,000.

CCDC said there had been a reduction in the availability of affordable housing for islanders.

Director Dannie Onn the island suffered from people buying second homes on the island and no social housing had been built for the last 20 years.

He said: "The population has been in general decline and the age profile has been changing. It is much older and there are fewer working-age people on the island."

Onn added: "It has taken a while to get here, but the legal and financial incentives put in place by the Scottish government to promote sustainable, self-reliant communities on the Scottish Islands looks to be paying off in Colonsay."

Ronnie MacRae, chief executive of the Communities Housing Trust, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity for islanders or folk really keen to move to Colonsay.

"With the homes and the business units, it's the full package to provide a secure, long-term future for individual families, as well as the island itself."