Upcoming SEDA LAND Events
Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 2
Friday, 2nd May 2025
Nature Finance – Public or Private?
Monday, 28th April 2025
Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 1
Friday, 24th January 2025
Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 2
Friday, 2nd May 2025
Nature Finance – Public or Private?
Monday, 28th April 2025
Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 1
Friday, 24th January 2025
A SEDA Land Conversation
4-6pm Monday, 28th April 2025
This online event, organised by SEDA Land, will explore where the money to finance nature recovery should come from, and how rural communities can thrive as Scotland’s natural environment is improved.
Sophie Cooke, poet
This poem was commissioned for this event.
Sophie is a Scottish novelist, short story writer and poet. She is the author of the novels The Glass House and Under The Mountain. Sophie is a regular contributor to SEDA Land events having a strong interest in ecology, people and place and sits on the steering group.
Should we rely on the public sector to step up to the challenge of reaching Net Zero and bring socio-economic benefits? If so, how do we raise the taxes to pay for that in a fair and equitable way, for example on the "polluter pays" principle, through a carbon land tax or through other property taxes? Which specific tax reforms are most likely to hasten nature recovery in Scotland? Are Regional Land Use Partnerships (RLUPs) an appropriate vehicle to coordinate public and private investment to deliver landscape and catchment scale collaboration? Is luring in more private finance the way forward? Maybe it is a combination of the two?
The debate will be in the context of Scotland, with its limited devolved powers and wide regional differences. The panel will look in broad terms at at ways of addressing climate change and improving the environment – carbon sequestration, reversing biodiversity loss, flood management – and the benefits this can bring in terms of employment, strengthened communities, recreation, education, and health & wellbeing.
Without finance, achieving these goals is nigh on impossible, so it comes down to the age- old question: Where does the money come from?
CHAIR: Nick Drainey
Freelance journalist
Nick Drainey is a freelance journalist based in Scotland, covering rural issues. He also writes walking guidebooks and has a popular Facebook walking group: Walking Scotland. He was formerly the news editor of The Scotsman as well as news editor of The Times Scotland. Nick has been a journalist since the days before Tony Blair was prime minister. Now freelancing from Linlithgow near Edinburgh, he has enjoyed written and broadcast work covering everything from walking guides and features to hard news stories He specialises in the outdoors from a love of hill walking and is passionate about all issues affecting rural life, from deer numbers to enterprising individuals setting up businesses and coming up with new ideas.
David Fleetwood
director of policy, John Muir Trust
Graeme McCormick
director, Business for Scotland
Graeme McCormick is a retired solicitor who specialised in urban and rural conveyancing transactions during his 40+ years in practice.
Since 2014 he has researched land as the principal source of public funding and has held nearly 100 presentations of his finance model, Annual Ground Floor and Roof Rent (AGFRR). This funding model could revolutionise not just taxation but the eradication of poverty, encouragement of enterprise, responding to AI and globotics, and a cultural change in the stewardship of land and property.
David was Head of the First Minister's Policy and Delivery Unit at the Scottish Government until last month when he moved to become director of policy at the John Muir Trust. Previously he headed th Scottish Government’s Climate and Public Series and First Minister’s Question Team. David is a board member for Framtidshavet Norway – Ocean Scenarios Foundation – a global, non-profit and independent foundation that raises awareness of the problem of plastics in the sea.
Henry Leveson-Gower
founder & CEO, Promoting Economic Pluralism
Howard Reed
founder & director, Landman Economics
Henry is founder and CEO of Promoting Economic Pluralism and Director of New Economic Knowledge Services, its consultancy arm. He works to open up thinking and action on economic organisation to different perspectives through editing and publishing The Mint Magazine and supporting innovative action on the ground. He is working with a range of landscape regeneration projects to support innovative collaborative multi-stakeholder approaches that gain private funding while also being adaptive over the long term to changing science, policy and circumstances. This approach developed from his time as a research fellow at the Centre for Evaluating Complexity Across the Nexus at the University of Surrey in 2017. He is a Fellow of the RSA and a qualified chartered accountant.
Lewis Ryder-Jones
advocacy adviser, Oxfam Scotland
Howard is Senior Research Fellow in Public Policy working as part of a team in SWECW examining the health case for basic income and a broader programme of policy development. His particular focus lies in exploring the economic and health economic impacts of public policies such as in Treating Causes not Symptoms: Basic Income as a Public Health Measure. He is a leading specialist in microsimulation modelling of tax-benefit systems and other applied microeconomic analysis and is Director of Landman Economics. In 2008-09 Howard wrote the original version of the tax-benefit model used by the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Resolution Foundation, which has evolved into the Landman Economics Tax-Transfer Model (TTM), one of the leading tax-benefit microsimulation models in the UK. Before founding Landman Economics, Howard was Chief Economist and Director of Research at the Institute for Public Policy Research from 2004 and 2008.
Rachel Skene
manager, Regional Land Use Partnership NW2045
Lewis is Oxfam’s Advocacy adviser in Scotland working across all Oxfam Scotland’s influencing priorities, including fairer taxation. He played a central role in developing the new Tax Justice Scotland campaign that is backed by over 50 organisations. The campaign focuses on making the case that Scotland’s devolved and local tax systems can, and should, do much more to drive positive social and environmental change. He has worked in policy and campaigning roles in Scotland’s third sector for almost a decade and holds a Masters in Comparative Public Policy from the University of Edinburgh.
Rachel returned to third- sector working, after 10 years in the public sector with HIE, in 2022 when she joined Northwest2045 – a place-based collective of third, private and public sector people who collaborate to support delivery of the community generated NW2045 Vision VISION | NORTHWEST2045 . NW2045 is contributing to the Scottish Governments ambition to see greater agency develop at a regional and local level. Rachel has sought to support place- based, community led action and research; to distribute available resources within the community. This is being achieved by investing in communities to co-lead: to do the work collaboratively.
In person on Friday, 2nd May 2025
9 am – 5 pm
This event follows on from part 1, held in January, and continues to explore innovative, affordable and low-carbon solutions to Scotland's housing crises – both rural and urban. This event will start with a showcase of some of the beautifully-designed, prefabricated houses already available in Scotland. We know how to do it – we just need to be able to do it at scale.
Over four sessions, we will discuss how we might roll out more manufacturing hubs across Scotland, using local timber, and other ways of speeding up the building process. Experts will address issues around regulation, finance and whether retrofit might follow a similar model.
Whether you're involved in construction, housing policy, provision or campaigning, or simply interested in learning more about innovative ways of addressing the housing emergency, this is the conference for you.
"Radical Housing Conference Scotland brings together the thinkers and the doers in housing, providing an opportunity to grow the links needed to deliver more of the sustainable, affordable, home-grown housing that addresses Scotland's housing needs." - Highlands & Islands MSP and housing committee convenor Ariane Burgess
We can't just wait for the Scottish Government to resolve this; we have to take action ourselves. Let's work together to create a more equitable, affordable and sustainable housing future in Scotland. We have one simple rule, don't come to describe the problem, only come with solutions.
9:00 Arrival, coffee and exhibition
9:15 Welcome
9:30 Session 1: INSPIRATION – a showcase of affordable prefabricated house models
Chair – Louise Rogers, impact manager, housing and manufacturing, BE-ST
Tam – Craig White, CEO & founder, Agile Homes
Makar – Neil Sutherland, founder & director, MAKAR
Social Bite house – Matt Stevenson, founder & CEO, Ecosystems Technologies
10:45 Session 2: Financial INNOVATION – carbon and social value trades (CSVT)
Craig White, CEO & founder, Agile Homes
11:15 Poetry interlude
Chris Powici reads a poem commission for the event.
11:30 Session 3: THE MEANS - rural construction hubs
Chair – Diarmaid Lawlor – associate director, Scottish Futures Trust
Neil Sutherland – founder & director, MAKAR
John Forbes – communities co-ordinator, Communities Housing Trust
Mark Councill – founder, Logie Timber & CleanCut Forestry
Ronnie MacRae – housing delivery manager, SSEN
HIE / SOSE
12:45 Lunch and exhibition
13:45 Session 4: THE OBVIOUS - trustworthy retrofit centres
Chair – Lisa Ann Pasquale – Retrofit Coordinator AP
Matthew Clubb – mwclubb / Architectural Design
Toby Tucker – SFT
Joanne McClelland & Aythan Lewes – EALA Impacts
Colin Tennant – HES Retrofit Centre
Raasay Retrofit (TBC)
Toby Tucker – Associate director National Retrofit Centre BE-ST (TBC)
15:00 Musical interlude
15:30 Session 5: THE VISIONARY – regulatory futures
Chair – Gail Halvorsen, chair, SEDA Land
Ariane Burgess MSP – Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Bea Nichols – Place Development Manager, HES
Neil Sutherland – founder & director, MAKAR
John Forbes – communities co-ordinator, Communities Housing Trust
Matt Stevenson – founder &managing director, Ecosystems Technologies
Raasay Development trust (TBC)
16:45 Concluding remarks
17:00 Close
Chris Powici, poet and Teaching Fellow, University of Stirling
This poem was commissioned for the event.
Chris’s poetry focuses on how the natural and human worlds overlap. His poems range from the shed door to the back of beyond, from a rain-swept railway station to a graveyard in Skye. Powici edited the literary magazine Northwords Now for seven years. His poems have been published widely including in Gutter, BBC Wildlife, New Writing Scotland and Scotia Extremis.
The conference is organised by SEDA Land, part of the Scottish Ecological Design Association, and Agile Homes.
Part 3 of Radical Housing Conference Scotland will held 6–9 pm 11th June, Augustine United Church, Edinburgh, as part of part of the Architecture Fringe.
Ticket prices: Promo Codes to be entered at checkout
In Person tickets:
General Admission: £120
SEDA member: £80
Promo Code: SEDAmember
Student / unwaged: £40
Promo Code: RadicalStudent
For Online tickets:
General Admission: £30
SEDA member: £20
Promo Code: SEDAmemberOnline
Student / unwaged: £10
Promo Code: RadicalStudentOnline
Anyone spending the night is welcome to join us for dinner on Thursday, 1st May. Please note your interest here or on the Eventbrite form.
Ariane Burgess MSP, for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party.
Ariane Burgess MSP grew up in Scotland and lived for 20 years in New York City, she returned to Scotland and became involved in the independence movement, joining the Scottish Green Party in Moray. She authored “Life Design for Women: Conscious Living as a Force for Positive Change” and previously worked in sustainable community development. She is the Scottish Green Party spokesperson for Communities, Land Reform, Housing and Rural Affairs and MSP for the Highlands & Islands. As Convenor of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee she helped to steer the new National Planning Framework through Parliament and she also sits as an ordinary member of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee. In January 2023 she launched her Regenerative Scotland podcast which explores the action needed to ensure a thriving future in the face of our climate and nature emergency through a series of in-depth conversations about aspects of her parliamentary work.
Joanne McLelland, President, EALA Impacts & Treasurer and, Edinburgh Building Retrofit & Improvement Collective
Jo is the founder of Eala CIC and an Accredited Conservation Architect with the RIBA. Jo’s twin passions of conservation and sustainability are shown in her work as well as memberships of the RIAS boards for both areas, as well as memberships of SEDA, SPAB and IHBC. Jo is the immediate past EAA President, a trustee of the RIAS, director of Circular Economy initiative Plan A, and Treasurer of the Edinburgh Building Retrofit & Improvement Collective. The Collective is a community support organisation to improve the relationship of people and their buildings in Edinburgh. She was responsible for the Edinburgh RIAS COP26 activities, including the steering group of SpACE – Space for Architecture Carbon and Environment. Jo is a tutor at the Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture (ESALA).
Bea Nichols, Place development manager, Historic Environment Scotland
Bea has always worked in rural planning, first at Scottish Borders, then in Perth & Kinross followed by South Lanarkshire. She recently joined the newly formed place development scheme at Historic Environment Scotland. Her passion comes from her childhood growing up in remote Herefordshire. Locals were being bought out of the area by wealthier incomers, rural services were diminishing, and it was increasingly difficult to live and work without a car. She moved to Edinburgh before she could afford to move back to the countryside, further exacerbating the issue for the next generation of young people. Bea believes that planners are placemakers responsible for shaping communities that providing an equitable choice for future generations.
Craig White, Founder and CEO, Agile Homes
Craig is CEO at Agile Property and Homes. Agile delivers low-carbon, affordable homes to those in housing need. Prior to setting up Agile, Craig founded the Chartered RIBA Architectural Practice, White Design and ModCell Straw Technology, prefabricated, renewable building systems. This combination of design and fabrication lead to one of the first construction products to make large-scale, carbon-negative building a commercial reality.
Neil Sutherland, founder, MAKAR Ltd.
Neil is an award winning, ecologically driven architect who runs his own construction company, MAKAR Ltd., South of Inverness. MAKAR is a pioneering company that designs and builds ecological homes, offices and community buildings using off-site construction. Neil is passionate about building healthy, environmentally friendly, low energy buildings using locally grown timber. Neil has experience in timber and land management and teaches at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture, Aberdeen.
Toby Tucker, associate director, Scottish Futures Trust
Toby is a qualified Chartered Accountant and finance specialist with over 20 years' experience in corporate and project finance, as well as Banking. Toby leads SFT's work on Scottish Government’s Energy Efficient Scotland programme. He led the development and delivery of SFT’s successful Streetlighting toolkit. He is a Director of Energy for Edinburgh service company.
John Forbes, Community Led Housing Co-ordinator, Communities Housing Trust
With a background in Mechanical Engineering John has worked throughout the UK on Construction and Facility Management Projects. Now living on the West coast of Scotland his focus over the past decade has been to support and take forward affordable house developments throughout Rural Scotland. His role with the Communities Housing Trust includes early engagement with communities, identifying housing need, securing funding, undertaking site appraisals, land and property transactions, tenure modelling as well as construction development of new homes.
Matthew Clubb, director, mwclubb | Architectural Design
Through his firm of Architects and Retrofit Coordinators in Aberdeen, Matthew champions the adoption of whole house retrofit and community led, place-based approaches. mwclubb are the main delivery agent for the Scottish Rugby Club and Community Net Zero Fund, a project to help decarbonise rugby club buildings in communities across Scotland. Matthew chairs the North East Scotland Retrofit Hub (NESFIT), aimed at raising awareness of whole house retrofit, to alleviate fuel poverty, to build a supply chain and to transition our built environment towards healthy, resilient buildings.
Matt Stevenson, founder & CEO, Ecosystems Technologies
Founder of Ecosystems Technologies, Matt Stevenson is a recognised industry leader in digital construction technology and low carbon building designs, having previously founded and developed early industry pioneer Carbon Dynamic. He has delivered multiple projects with partners such as Arc Digital, Napier University COCIS, CSIC and RGU through innovative projects such as the technology enabled assisted living ‘FitHome’ project and the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology Student village.
Diarmaid Lawlor, Associate Director, Scottish Futures Trust
Diarmaid is a designer, educator, and communicator who champions creative approaches to making better places. He has over 20 years’ experience working with communities and across sectors to make well-informed decisions about place-based policy and investment challenges. In SFT, Diarmaid leads on support to the Scottish Government Place Based Investment Programme, and works with public bodies across Scotland to shape place-based strategies for services, assets and investments.
Ronnie MacRae – Housing Delivery Manager, SSEN
Ronnie has over 40 years experience of the housing, construction and community sectors as a partner in a family construction business in Durness, promoting private sector improvements for Highland Council, before joining CHT in 2005 and was CEO from 2010 delivering a wide range of community projects and initiatives. Now assisting SSEN to deliver its exciting Housing Strategy, he is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building and is a Chartered Environmentalist.
Mark Councill – founder, Logie Timber & CleanCut Forestry,
As an experienced forester, Mark is passionate about ensuring that there is an established market for high quality hardwood production in the region. With Clean Cut Forestry, his tree surgery and forestry business, Mark sources quality timber from forestry jobs that would otherwise be a waste product or cut up into firewood. Logie Timber works symbiotically with my pre-existing forestry business to complete our Full Circle approach.
Louise Rogers, Impact Manager, Housing and Manufacturing, BE-ST
As an Impact Manager on our MMC team, Louise is passionate about transforming the built environment. With a strong foundation in R&D, Louise has been dedicated to advancing modern methods of construction throughout her career, specifically through the wider use of biogenic materials in construction and adopting lean manufacturing techniques. Louise supports projects running through our innovation factory, and particularly enjoys anything mass timber related.
Morning – From Forest & Field to Front Door
From Forest & Field to Front Door (F4D) explores opportunities in agroforestry and regenerative housing through an innovative financial mechanism called Carbon and Social Value Trading (CSVT), which integrates natural carbon capture and storage with social impact. F4D incorporates a Forestry Commission R&D initiative using low-carbon, 3-ply cross-laminated timber (CLT) that accommodates diverse wood species in hybrid mixes to underpin a localised method for the prefabrication of low-carbon affordable homes. Collaborators include Agile, Highland Heritage Woodworks, Grown in Britain, and Carbon Plantations. Agile’s CSVT tool generates funding by trading Social Value and Carbon credits, creating a new revenue stream to scale affordable housing delivery.
F4D addresses rural regeneration, the housing crisis, and climate challenges by building resilient, low-carbon communities. Key obstacles in Scotland include land availability, Agile will share their model for unlocking land. Grant funding from the Forestry Commission and awards like the Esmée Fairbairn and Royal Agricultural University prize have enabled this work, and underwrites the delivery of the Radical Housing Conference Scotland Craig White and Guy Phillips will present their research outcomes and next steps.
9:30 Morning Session 1 – Supply chain trends & trajectory in Scotland
Chair – Rachel Lawrence, business manager, Grown in Britain
10:30 Morning Session 2 – Woodlands into Management innovation R&D case study.
Chair – Rachel Lawrence, business manager, Grown in Britain
Guy Phillips, CEO & co-founder,Highland Heritage Woodworks
Craig White, CEO & founder, Agile Homes
Thin CLT 3 ply manufacture in Scotland. Establishing how micro mills can find a higher margin economic model for the manufacture of high-value engineered timber products for the use in housing. A systems thinking approach to innovation in timber engineering.
11:15 Morning Session 3 – Wood Knowledge Wales: Emerging the high value forest nation
Building off of the WKW conference in Bioeconomy Innovation Day 2024. https://woodknowledge.wales/bioeconomy-innovation-day-2024/. Renewable, circular solutions are essential for achieving a green transition by building bio-based solutions for a decarbonised built environment.
12:00 Distilling thoughts: panel & delegate conversation into action.
12.30 pm Lunch break
Online all day on Friday, 24th January 2025.
Free
Join us for this online event exploring innovative, affordable and low-carbon solutions to Scotland's rural and urban housing crises. This all-day event will include a series of engaging discussions and presentations led by people who are helping to fix the housing crisis. Whether you're a housing advocate, policymaker, a community-led housing activist, or simply interested in learning more about housing in Scotland, this is the conference for you.
"Radical Housing Conference Scotland brings together the thinkers and the doers in housing, providing an opportunity to grow the links needed to deliver more of the sustainable, affordable, home-grown housing that addresses Scotland's housing needs." - Highlands & Islands MSP Ariane Burgess
We can't just wait for the Scottish Government to resolve this; we have to take action ourselves -- both in terms of design, implementation and finding alternative sources of funding. Let's work together to create a more equitable, affordable and sustainable housing future in Scotland! We have one simple rule, don't come to describe the problem, only come with solutions.
Afternoon Session 1 – Urban
This session is about new collective models for building and retrofitting homes that are both affordable and sustainable. This session will challenge cultural norms, addressing the issues around urban housing from new social perspectives. We will cover how to develop new co-living models and how existing buildings can be adapted for collective housing. We will focus on cooperative governance and models for living together which go beyond the nuclear-family-centric model. What cultural and social shifts will be needed for these alternative forms of housing to take place? We also will be hearing from marginalised communities.
13:15 Panel discussion and Q&A
Chair – Scott McAulay, founder, Anthropocene Architecture School / RDIS, Architype Ltd.
Panel:
Joanne McClelland, founder EALA Impacts
Emilia Kibble, Edinburgh Student Housing Coperative
Gemma Moncrief and Roseanne Steffen, co-founding and new member of Redcurrant Housing Cooperative
Kirsty Maguire, director, Kirsty Maguire Architect Ltd.
Afternoon Session 2 – Rural
In this session, we will consider how the Scottish construction industry might be cajoled into building more sustainable and affordable homes to meet anticipated demand in the Highlands & Islands arising from developments such as Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport. We will look at opportunities emerging from innovative housing projects and funding models, including those of SSEN Transmission and Mowi, which could become a model suitable for roll out across rural Scotland. We will also examine whether the private sector might be persuaded to fund a network of sustainable construction hubs where training, tools and workspace is available, across rural Scotland, where local builders can learn how to build affordable homes for the rural workforce using local timber. Will fish farms, distilleries, renewable energy companies, energy infrastructure firms, and other rural enterprises, all of which are currently struggling to find and retain staff owing to the lack of affordable homes, invest or give loans to develop a network of such hubs?
15:00 Panel discussion and Q&A
Chair – Morven Fancey, Head of Housing, Skills and Population, Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Panel:
Gavin Miles, Director of Planning and Place, Cairngorms National Park Authority
Richard Jennings, Housing Strategy Manager SSEN Transmission
Diarmaid Lawlor, Associate Director Scottish Futures Trust
16:40 Close
The conference is organised by SEDA Land, part of the Scottish Ecological Design Association, and Agile Homes. Part 2 of Radical Housing Conference Scotland will be an all-day, in person event on 2 May at Birnam Arts in Dunkeld and Part 3 is an evening in-person event held in Edinburgh in June, which will form part of the Architecture Fringe (exact date to be confirmed).
Stay tuned for updates on the schedule and speakers.
The following speakers as listed below have been confirmed.
Richard Jennings, Housing Strategy Manager SSEN Transmission
Richard is a creative provocateur driving innovation and leadership at the interface of the public, private and voluntary sectors. He is experienced in the delivery of transformation change programmes and leading complex and successful organisations. Learning from failures and successes and building trust within teams and across stakeholders. Richard has developed and delivered technology enabled change to improve customer services and the P&L account. He has over 10 years of board experience, including chair of main boards and audit committees.
He is values led and committed to tackling inequity in society.
Joanne McLelland, President, EALA Impacts & Treasurer and, Edinburgh Building Retrofit & Improvement Collective
Jo is the founder of Eala CIC and an Accredited Conservation Architect with the RIBA. Jo’s twin passions of conservation and sustainability are shown in her work as well as memberships of the RIAS boards for both areas, as well as memberships of SEDA, SPAB and IHBC. Jo is the immediate past EAA President, a trustee of the RIAS, director of Circular Economy initiative Plan A, and Treasurer of the Edinburgh Building Retrofit & Improvement Collective. The Collective is a community support organisation to improve the relationship of people and their buildings in Edinburgh. She was responsible for the Edinburgh RIAS COP26 activities, including the steering group of SpACE – Space for Architecture Carbon and Environment. Jo is a tutor at the Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture (ESALA).
Gavin Miles, Director of Planning, Cairngorms National Park Authority
More information to follow…
Craig White, Founder and CEO, Agile Homes
Craig is CEO at Agile Property and Homes. Agile delivers low-carbon, affordable homes to those in housing need. Prior to setting up Agile, Craig founded the Chartered RIBA Architectural Practice, White Design and ModCell Straw Technology, prefabricated, renewable building systems. This combination of design and fabrication lead to one of the first construction products to make large-scale, carbon-negative building a commercial reality.
Scott McAulay, founder, Anthropocene Architecture School / Regenerative Design and Infrastructures Specialist, Architype Ltd.
Scott founded the Anthropocene Architecture School in 2019 and through it has brought together thousands of built environment professionals and beyond to learn about responding to the climate emergency and cultivate their agency. Working with Architype, Scott is the studio's first Regenerative Design and Infrastructures Specialist - cultivating conditions for regenerative outcomes internally and externally whilst applying specialisms on ecological materials, life cycle analysis and sustainability coordination to projects across the U.K. Scott is an active member of Living Rent, a Co-Producer of the Architecture Fringe, contributed to the co-creation of the Retrofit Reimagined 2023 festival season and has taught about climate literacy and the intersection of architecture and the climate crisis at universities across the U.K. and internationally.
Morven Fancey, Head of Housing, Skills & Population at Highlands & Islands Enterprise
Morven investigates the link between housing and economic growth in the Highlands and Islands and why national policies to support both need to be aligned and adjusted to fit with the specific conditions of remote rural and island communities. She works in the Highlands and Islands Population Working Group addressing depopulation. Morven has 30 years’ experience of working in rural economic development in the region. More recently she has focussed on addressing depopulation in rural locations in island and west coast communities where the lack of housing is now recognised as the major barrier to sustaining and growing the population AND the economy.
Gemma Moncrief & Roseanne Steffen, co-founder & new member, Redcurrant Housing Cooperative
Redcurrant Housing Co-operative is a fully mutual housing co-operative – a jointly-owned and collectively controlled enterprise. Having started off looking for a property in Edinburgh, after 3 years Redcurrant moved its search to Glasgow. As of early 2021 they have secured a home in the southside of Glasgow and seek to provide affordable and secure housing for its members; a home where they can feel safe and flourish as individuals and collectively.
Emilia Kibble, Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op
Emilia is currently in her third year at The University of Edinburgh and a member of the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative, where she currently holds the role of Property Developer.
Guy Philips, CEO & founder, Highland Heritage Woodworks
After a successful 25 year career as a geologist at BP, Guy setup Highland Heritage Woodworks with Armands Balams. Knowing that a successful company needs the best people, Guy has gathered together a team with exceptional talents. Having helped his father build the family home when he was young, Guy has remained connected to building beautiful things from wood. He is a firm believer in ‘Forest to Front Door’, making the best use of the raw materials on our doorstep to craft products and structures of exceptional quality with genuine sustainability. Guy says ‘It’s important to be passionate about everything you do. Getting the right balance between family, adventure and work is a constant challenge, but when you hit that sweet spot, well…you know all about it.
Diarmaid Lawlor, Associate Director Scottish Futures Trust
Diarmaid is a designer, educator, and communicator who champions creative approaches to making better places. He has over 20 years’ experience working with communities and across sectors to make well-informed decisions about place-based policy and investment challenges. In SFT, Diarmaid leads on support to the Scottish Government Place Based Investment Programme, and works with public bodies across Scotland to shape place-based strategies for services, assets and investments.
Christiane Lellig, regenerative development, Wood Knowledge Wales
Christiane Lellig focuses on societal transformation and regenerative approaches from a living systems perspective. Christiane has been working on social change programmes in Switzerland, Germany and the UK since 1999 ranging from environmental concerns to labour and social justice issues. From 2016-2020 she was responsible for the UK timber industry’s Wood for Good campaign. Her particular interests lie in questions around resilience, society in transition, land-use, forestry, biodiversity, housing and transport. Christiane holds a postgraduate degree in Social Sciences from the University of Göttingen, Germany. She is a member of the regenerative practitioners network affiliated with Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice.
Kirsty Maguire, director, Kirsty Maguire Architect Ltd.
Director at Kirsty Maguire Architects Ltd - architect, specialist consultant and capacity development; Tutor at Coaction Passivhaus Training. Passivhaus designer and Passivhaus certifier trained
Working with the local climate, surrounding buildings or landscape and the inhabitants to create warm, comfortable, low energy spaces is key to my approach.
Rachel Lawrence, business manager, Grown in Britain
Rachel grew up surrounded by school teachers carrying out renovation projects, so it was inevitable she ended up working in the built environment arena. With a background in marketing literacy and numeracy software into education for Research Machines, Rachel went on to project manage two residential builds using traditional materials at a time when traditional materials were quite radical. Her role at GiB blends forestry and chain of custody certification with innovative R&D, all with the aim of promoting the use of certified homegrown timber and increasing capacity and capability in UK supply chains.