The 44 house project was officially opened last week by Scotland’s housing minister, Alex Neil, who commented:  “the Scottish Government is investing record amounts of funding in boosting Scotland’s stock of good quality affordable homes.  Over the next three years we are investing £1.5 billion and this year £23 million will directly support the affordable housing sector in Ayrshire. This superb new development is great news for local people looking for affordable rental housing or low cost homeownership and for the local economy and jobs.”

Mr Neil met with Ayrshire Housing’s board foe the discussion of the prospects for more affordable housing locally. Paul Torrance, Ayrshire Housing’s chairman, commented: “We were impressed with Mr Neil’s frankness about the difficulties that we have getting new affordable housing projects underway at the moment.

However, he has some very interesting ideas about how the councils, housing associations, the private sector and the Scottish Government can work in new ways to deliver much-needed new housing.