The £10,000 grant will be used to extend the development officer assistance provided by Rural Housing Scotland to complement the many volunteer hours contributed by the community.

Simon Blackett, chair of Braemar Community Ltd, said: “The support of a paid development officer has been crucial to the progress of the project. Although we have a band of willing volunteers who work on the project in their spare time, we would have struggled to get this far without the work of a paid development officer. This award will allow us to continue to push our plans forward to provide much needed new, affordable homes for Braemar.”

Plans for the community-led housing project were recently submitted following an extensive community consultation and assessment of local housing need. The new houses will include 1-bed, 2-bed and 3-bed homes as well as wheelchair accessible flats.

Sam Foster, development officer with Rural Housing Scotland, added: “Our work with the people of Braemar has highlighted a strong need for new affordable homes in the village to support businesses and community life in general. People within the community have committed many volunteer hours to get this far, but we cannot expect volunteers to deliver rural housing without specialist support, and this new funding boost will help ensure that this support remains available as the project progresses.”

The homes are planned for a derelict piece of land behind Kindrochit Court in the centre of Braemar, and alongside Tomrichton Woods.

Braemar Community Ltd were recently awarded grant funding from Scottish Land Fund to purchase these woods and green space for the village as part of the place-making aspect of the project. Each home will be designed to achieve the Passivhaus level of energy efficiency helping to tackle fuel poverty and reduce the environmental impact of the new builds.