King Harald Street Press Release

PRESS RELEASE – 6 January 2021

Hjaltland Housing Association, working in partnership with the Shetland Islands Council (SIC) and Scottish Government, is pleased to announce the imminent completion of its latest housing development at King Harald Street in Lerwick. Designed by PJP Architects and built by DITT Construction Ltd, this project sees the provision of twenty seven new flats in the centre of Lerwick.

The site was gifted to the Association in 2016 by the Council for the provision of housing and the Scottish Government provided £3.2 million in grant funding as part of their ongoing commitment to deliver new affordable homes in Shetland.

All twenty seven properties are one bedroom two person flats with the ten ground floor units designed as accessible homes to meet the differing and changing needs of tenants as they experience life events. All properties are fully networked with fibre to promote digital inclusion, maximise broadband speeds and enable the use of assistive technologies.

Bryan Leask, chief executive of Hjaltland Housing Association said, “I am delighted to see the completion of these fantastic new homes. It’s such a shame that we are not able to hold a public open day due to the ongoing Covid restrictions, however, the latest Scottish Government guidance includes moving home as a reasonable excuse for someone to leave their residence. The guidance states it is acceptable to leave home “for activities in connection with moving home (including viewing a property), or for activities in connection with the maintenance, purchase, sale, letting or rental of residential property that the person owns or is otherwise responsible for. Therefore we will instead share information and photos of the development on our social media pages and website.”

The Association’s Head of Investment Paul Leask commented, “It’s great to see this project coming to fruition and bringing, what was essentially a derelict site, back into use. I think the whole team have done a fantastic job in designing and constructing this high quality project and look forward to seeing tenants moving in. It’s been a very challenging year and it’s great that this investment has helped sustain some of our local businesses as they deal with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Karen Manson lead Architect for PJP Architects said, “With its location in the heart of the Conservation Area and directly opposite the very prominent Category B Listed Islesburgh Community Centre the site presented a challenge but also a unique opportunity to bring some new life to what had become a fairly derelict site. We were keen to create a strong frontage to the street to reflect the scale and pattern of the surrounding buildings and used this to provide shelter and privacy for the spaces behind. We are delighted with the end result and feel that the new buildings sit comfortably within the existing street, providing a contemporary new addition to King Harald Street but one which is sensitive to its surroundings.

DITT Construction Ltd Director John Tait added, “We are delighted to be involved in this project with Hjaltland delivering 27 new affordable homes in Lerwick. These modern flats have been designed to the highest standards and we are extremely happy with the finished product.”

HHA Head of Housing & Customer Service Ian Bray continued, “This development is another important step in the journey to meeting the exceptionally high demand for single person accommodation in Lerwick. I would encourage existing tenants who are in larger properties to consider submitting an application, with this being a unique opportunity to downsize. By prioritising our existing tenant base for the ground floor flats, we can then free up additional family-sized accommodation for re-allocation. Whilst there will be 27 new tenancies created at King Harald Street, this will in reality create a domino effect to alleviate housing need for many more families.”

All twenty seven properties are for social rent and will be advertised for let in January 2021. Following a consultation exercise in the summer, the ten ground floor flats will be allocated to existing Hjaltland and SIC Housing tenants, who are under-occupying their existing properties, and would benefit from a move to a property with excellent access. The remaining 17 flats will be allocated in line with The Association’s mainstream Allocation Policy.