A derelict Crieff hotel will be demolished to make way for a £2 million housing project.
Kingdom Housing Association aims to transform the site of the Crown Hotel, East High Street, into 14 affordable flats.
It is understood that the former hotel ceased trading 17 years ago and it has become increasingly dilapidated.
The £1.9m housing plan is to raze the building to the ground and replace it with a mixture of one and two bedroom flats, with car parking facilities below.
The project is the first to be undertaken in Crieff by Fife-based Kingdom Housing, which recently completed a housing development in Abernethy, and it has received financial support from the Scottish Government and Perth and Kinross Council.
Yesterday, Kingdom chairperson Charles Milne said: “Kingdom is very pleased to be able to contribute to the continuing regeneration of Crieff’s town centre and, at the same time, to provide badly-needed homes for affordable rent.
“This is an exciting project for us. It has been several years in the pipeline so it is great to see work now getting under way.”
He continued: “Wherever we seek to develop housing, we also seek to pay heed to the wishes of the local community and, in choosing this site, we were mindful of Crieff’s community action plan, where the need for the provision of affordable housing was identified, along with a requirement to find solutions to redundant and derelict buildings.
“Although Kingdom Housing Association has committed substantial funds to this project, it could not be undertaken without the support and partnership of other funders, such as the Scottish Government’s affordable housing supply programme, the Town Centre Housing Fund and also Perth and Kinross Council.
“This complicated redevelopment work has also required strong partnership links with the council’s planning department and BEAR Scotland.”
On completion of the development, the houses will remain in Kingdom’s ownership but will be maintained and managed by Perth-based Fairfield Housing Co-operative.