Social Bite Bets 15 Timber Homes on a Rutherglen Sawmill

Harriet Gardens opened on 7 April 2026 with 15 timber Nest Houses on the old Westfield Saw Mills site in Rutherglen. The village is a £3 million supported living community built by Social Bite with South Lanarkshire Council, and The Salvation Army runs it day to day.

It is Social Bite’s second village after Edinburgh in 2018. The wager is that a small, rent-paying site with staff on the ground all night can move people into real tenancies, in a year when Scotland logged 19,004 households in temporary accommodation.

Fifteen Homes Land on a Rutherglen Sawmill

The official opening was on Tuesday, 7 April 2026, with council staff, charity workers and residents from the Edinburgh village on the plot. People began moving in from 9 April, a few at a time rather than all 15 doors at once.

Each Nest House is a single-person home with a bedroom, shower room, kitchen and sitting room. An outdoor gym sits among the planting, and a central hub holds shared cooking space, group rooms and a place for therapeutic work.

Sharon Egan, South Lanarkshire Council’s head of housing services, said the project started as a test of new approaches, “particularly for people with complex needs.” Jackie Fernie, the council’s homelessness and housing manager, called it independent living and said she does not want people leaving into another spell of temporary rooms.

Josh Littlejohn MBE, co-founder of Social Bite, said Harriet Gardens shows what happens “when we bring together housing, support and community in the right way,” and that he hopes it will be “the second village of many.”

We’re not taught that in the real world, poor health can take away your ability to work, or that the people you rely on – parents, friends, family – might not always be there. For many, that can mean facing hardship alone and in silence, while the rest of the world carries on. Harriet Gardens will change that. It will give people a place to belong – somewhere free from judgement, where strangers can become friends, where people can learn to cope, rebuild their confidence, and begin to believe in and accept themselves again.

Jim, Social Bite service user, at the Rutherglen opening

Karen Good, contract manager for The Salvation Army’s Homelessness Services, said the site is meant to give consistent, person-centred help so people can move on at their own pace. Former Glasgow MSP Annie Wells, after a visit, listed cookery classes, naloxone training and movie nights among the early programme.

19,004 Households Are Still in Temporary Rooms

Social Bite went public in April citing 2,467 people declared homeless in South Lanarkshire in 2024-25. The national picture, published on 22 September 2026, is heavier than that local figure implies.

Scottish Government 19,004 households in temporary accommodation were counted on 31 March 2026, up 10% from 17,240 a year earlier and the highest snapshot in the series. Open cases rose 10% to 34,964. Applications barely moved, at 41,443 against 41,246, so the pressure is in the backlog, not a sudden rush of new forms.

SCOTLAND’S QUEUE, YEAR TO 31 MARCH 2026

Closed cases still averaged 237 days in temporary rooms, and the clock from assessment to closure ran to 277 days. Among households assessed as homeless, 71% were single-person and 50% had at least one support need, which is the slice Harriet Gardens is built to take. Families with children, 24% of the assessed total, are outside this design.

Fifteen doors do not shorten that national queue. They are a high-support lane for a few single adults, run as a model the partners want other councils to copy.

The Nest Houses Came Down From Invergordon

Ecosystems Technologies built the homes at its Highland plant and sent them south as finished boxes. Built Environment Smarter Transformation, the public body that hosted the prototype, describes the Nest House as homegrown timber and offsite manufacturing, delivered fully furnished on a plug-and-play system so the site work is mainly ground, services and the crane.

Mass timber components for the prototype were pressed on the UK’s only vacuum press at BE-ST’s Innovation Factory. Facades use Scottish-grown cladding. BE-ST says the timber is taken from managed local forests and that the finished house is net zero carbon.

On-site work in Rutherglen was short by housebuilding standards. Councillors approved the scheme in September 2024. Ground was broken in September 2025. The first homes were lifted in that November, with the rest due in December, after a road trip from Invergordon over the Kessock Bridge in a convoy of orange-clad boxes.

FROM PLANNING TO KEYS

1. September 2024: South Lanarkshire grants permission for the Harriet Street plot.
2. September 2025: Construction starts on the former Westfield Saw Mills land.
3. November 2025: The first Nest Houses are craned into place.
4. December 2025: Remaining houses and the hub building are due on site.
5. 7 April 2026: Official opening with partners and Edinburgh residents present.
6. 9 April 2026: First residents begin to move in.
7. 29 June 2026: The original Edinburgh village relaunches on the Granton waterfront.

BSW Timber, which donated structural timber, posted from the finished street once people were moving in.

Great to see @SocialBite_ Harriet Gardens Village in #Rutherglen now open and welcoming residents.

We were proud to support the project by donating structural timber for the homes.

A strong example of partnership delivering real community impact.#BSWTimber #SocialBite pic.twitter.com/P1GnW12HfG

— BSW Timber (@bswtimber) April 20, 2026

Scotmid and the Clothworkers Foundation also backed the second village. Day-to-day running is paid for by the council and Social Bite, with The Salvation Army on the contract for specialist support around the clock.

Edinburgh’s Tenancy Record Is the Sales Pitch

Harriet Gardens is not a new idea. Social Bite opened a village in Granton in 2018, run with Cyrenians, and says the Edinburgh site has helped over 120 residents. Around two-thirds left for a tenancy, and Social Bite says 100% of that group kept the tenancy, a better result than it attributes to B&Bs and other temporary rooms.

That 100% is not a claim about every person who ever slept there. It is a claim about the two-thirds who got a tenancy. The other third is the quieter part of the prospectus, and Rutherglen has no published outcomes of its own yet.

Edinburgh stays were planned for about 12 to 24 months. Harriet Gardens is being offered as a shorter stop, around six months to a year, for single men and women. Residents pay their own bills, council tax and rent at a level described as on par with a temporary furnished flat, which is how the partners try to make the stay feel like practice for a real tenancy rather than a hostel bed.

The Edinburgh houses had to move when the original lease, five years plus a two-year extension on land tied to the Granton Waterfront works, ran out. Prefabrication made the shift possible. The Rutherglen kit is the later Nest House, redesigned after years of resident feedback, including a 2023 prototype that toured St Andrews Square and Gleneagles before a spell at BE-ST.

Who Harriet Gardens Is Built For

The village is temporary accommodation with a higher specification, not a new supply of lifetime council houses. It is aimed at single adults, including people with complex needs, who can live in their own unit while staff sit in the hub.

WHAT THE SITE ACTUALLY OFFERS

• Private kit: Each resident gets a self-contained Nest House with a bedroom, shower, kitchen and living space, plus a small planted patch.
• Shared kit: The hub is for cooking together, group sessions, therapeutic support and ordinary social time, with an outdoor gym on the same plot.
• Staffing: The Salvation Army keeps specialist support on site around the clock, with the aim of a move into settled housing.
• Money: Rent, council tax and bills sit with the resident, at a pitch comparable to a temporary furnished flat.
• Time: A stay is expected to last around six months to a year, shorter than the Edinburgh pattern.
• Who is out: The 15 homes are single occupancy, so households with children are not the design load here.

Fernie’s test is blunt. If someone leaves Harriet Gardens and lands back in a B&B, the model has failed that person. Eighty-three percent of unintentionally homeless households in Scotland already secured settled housing in 2025-26; the village is betting it can raise the odds for people who usually bounce.

The Whole Site Works Out at £200,000 a Home

Divide £3 million by 15 doors and the whole village, hub, gym and landscaping included, costs £200,000 a home. That arithmetic spread quickly after the opening, and it is the cleanest objection the project faces.

The figure is not a factory invoice for one box. It is the all-in cost of a serviced community on a brownfield sawmill plot, including the support contract the council is buying. A cheaper empty flat on a nearby street does not come with night staff, a hub, or a planned six-to-12-month programme.

Still, £200,000 a door is a lot of public and charitable capital for 15 people at a time. Even if every resident moved on after six months, the site would turn over about 30 people in a year. Scotland had 19,004 households in temporary rooms on 31 March 2026. The village is a prototype, and the cost only looks rational if other councils repeat it, or if it cuts repeat homelessness hard enough to save later temporary-room bills.

Littlejohn has already said more villages could help people get used to having their own place. That is the expansion case. It is also an admission that one street in Rutherglen is not the policy.

Littlejohn Wants Village Two of Many

Social Bite has already drawn a third scheme, the Bill Sword recovery village in Dundee, as a 10-bed communal house plus 10 single homes for people facing homelessness and addiction. Edinburgh’s relocated Granton site relaunched on 29 June 2026. Rutherglen is the west-coast copy, with The Salvation Army in the Cyrenians role.

The factory method is the part that can, in theory, multiply. Houses left Invergordon as finished rooms and sat on Harriet Street within months of breaking ground. If the tenancy numbers match Edinburgh’s two-thirds move-on, councils sitting on unused land have a template. If they do not, Harriet Gardens remains a well-built cul-de-sac that looked good on opening day.

The 15 Nest Houses are on Harriet Street now, with rent due and staff in the hub. Edinburgh already claims the move-on record this project is trying to repeat. Rutherglen has to put its own figures on that claim.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Social Bite Run a Village Before Harriet Gardens?

Yes. The first Social Bite village opened in Granton, Edinburgh, in 2018 and was run with Cyrenians. Councillors later backed a move of less than a mile along the waterfront after the original lease on donated council land ended; that lease had been five years, then extended by two. The relocated village launched on 29 June 2026 and is still designed for up to 16 people at a time.

What Is Planned for the Dundee Social Bite Village?

BE-ST’s Nest House case study describes the Bill Sword Social Bite Recovery Village in Dundee as a 10-bed communal residence and 10 single-occupancy houses plus a hub, aimed at people struggling with homelessness and addiction, with skills training through recovery services. It is a different mix from Rutherglen’s 15 singles.

Who Else Put Money or Materials Into Harriet Gardens?

South Lanarkshire Council and Social Bite fund day-to-day running. Construction support came from Scotmid, the Clothworkers Foundation and BSW Timber, which donated structural timber for the homes. Ecosystems Technologies manufactured the Nest Houses in Invergordon.

When Was the Nest House Prototype First Shown?

The prototype was unveiled in St Andrews Square, Edinburgh, in November 2023 during Social Bite’s Festival of Kindness, then shown at Gleneagles Hotel, then at the BE-ST campus from spring 2024 until autumn 2025. BE-ST says that unit is now in Dundee.

Are the Homes Permanent, or Can They Be Moved Again?

They are built as complete modules, which is how Edinburgh’s earlier houses were shifted when the Granton lease ended. Harriet Gardens sits on a former sawmill that the partners treated as unused land, the same “meanwhile site” logic Social Bite used in Edinburgh, so the kit is designed to be craned off if a plot is wanted for something else.