Housing minister Kevin Stewart visited Scotland’s tallest timber building at a Sanctuary Homes project in Glasgow.

Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) has been used to build a £6 million seven-storey superstructure in Yoker, just yards from the River Clyde.

A sustainable alternative to steel and concrete, the use of CLT for Sanctuary’s innovative block of flats has environmental benefits. CLT also offers innovative builders greater flexibility during the construction process.

Gillian Lavety, Sanctuary’s head of development in Scotland, said: “We are delighted to work with our site contractor CCG (Scotland) Ltd on this creative project.

“CCG has drawn much industry attention for its expertise with CLT, a product which can enable affordable flats to be built faster and with less site disruption than traditional construction methods.

“In the coming months our Ellerslie Road project will provide Sanctuary Scotland with 42 high quality affordable flats, all available for mid-market rent.

“Other housing providers may see CLT’s potential when we complete Scotland’s tallest timber building.”

CLT was introduced to the UK in 2003. It has been used extensively across the South East of England on buildings up to 10 storeys, but has yet to take off in Scotland.

The innovative Ellerslie Road project received a £2.6 million Glasgow City Council grant. The CLT superstructure will be clad in acrylic brick slips, an innovative lightweight cladding solution replicating a traditional brick appearance.

Housing minister Kevin Stewart said: “It is great to see this innovative development and the opportunities it offers for the people of Glasgow, and also future housing developments. The Sanctuary project shows how possible it is to have homes that are affordable, high quality, modern, and sustainable.

“This Sanctuary Homes project is not just an innovation in house building, it is an innovation for Scotland. I look forward to seeing how other developments could benefit from this technology and the part it can play in our ambitions for housing, not least our commitment to deliver 50,000 affordable homes by the end of this Parliament.”

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Sanctuary’s Ellerslie Road flats will be available for mid-market rent from spring 2018.

Calum Murray, director of CCG, said: “CCG has performed extensive research into the applications of CLT and its use at Ellerslie Road is ground-breaking for the CCG Group and house building in Scotland.

“The benefits of CLT are similar to the timber frame system that CCG manufacture off-site offering high energy efficiency and a faster speed of construction. We firmly believe that the wider application of CLT will enable the sector to build homes faster and reduce carbon footprint across housing projects.

“Sanctuary tenants will be the first to benefit from a construction process and product which has the potential to help address Scotland’s affordable housing shortage.”