Six-year-old twins Molly and Anna MacGregor, of Inshes Primary School, Inverness, today marked the start of the build of the UK's first eco Housing Fair which will take place near Inverness in August 2009.

The Highland Housing Fair will showcase 54 architecturally designed eco-homes and is based on a model found in Finland and mainland Europe established for over 40 years.

Exactly 40% of the fair homes will be affordable, with the remaining 60% available for sale on the free market.

Visitors can also expect a cultural experience, with international artists performing and exhibitors showcasing the very best of Scottish interior design, art and furniture. It will be the first green event of its kind in the UK.

The Highland Housing Fair (HHF) also marks the start of a UK wide campaign for house builders to switch on to the need for sustainable house design.


HHF aims to shake up the housing sector and show what can be achieved by good house design, innovation, and by giving ordinary people that need it most, a vision for future living.

Councillor Drew Hendry, Chairman of The Highland Council’s Planning, Environment and Development Committee, added: "The Highland Housing Fair promises to be a great event, giving the opportunity for the housing industry and visitors alike to see what is possible for housing design going forward.

"It will also enable people to see that sustainable and affordable can go hand in hand."

The HHF has signed its first campaign Ambassador, Wayne Hemingway, Red or Dead founder and pioneer of social housing and creator of Staiths South Bank in Gateshead, who will appear at the event in 2009.

Wayne Hemingway said: "If we continue to allow house builders to build identikit rabbit hutches, which research regularly shows are largely unloved by a population in the grip of a major housing shortage, we will simply find ourselves pulling them down in 30 years, in the same way that we are now pulling down our mistakes of the '60s and '70s.

"What house buyers really want are stylish, high-quality dwellings close to friends, family, work and recreational facilities at prices they can afford."

Visit www.highlandhousingfair.com for further information.

(GK/JM)