New investment company NatureProsperity launches to pair nature recovery with affordable rural homes

MAKAR are proud to be a critical partner of NatureProsperity, providing a credible, scalable pathway for institutional capital to accelerate a resilient and nature-based rural economy in Scotland.

The model starts with sustainable Scottish forestry that can boost nature, and ends with timber-rich homes that store carbon, are affordable to build and run, and house a growing rural workforce that will help combat rural depopulation and improve Scotland's environment.

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PRESS RELEASE

INVERNESS, 5 June 2026. A new investment company built to pair nature recovery at scale with affordable rural housing launches today, on World Environment Day.

NatureProsperity aims to channel serious, long-term capital into nature recovery, and launches with four initial investees: Highlands Rewilding, the Scottish nature-recovery company, and MAKAR, the affordable timber-homes builder, in both of which it will hold significant stakes, together with two new companies it is establishing, in forestry and in community building.

The model has a name: the Nature Prosperity Pump. Carbon is drawn down into growing woodland; sustainable forestry turns part of that growth into timber; the timber is manufactured into affordable wooden homes; and those homes are built in the rural economy, housing the workforce needed to reverse biodiversity loss. Investment flows in, and nature recovery, homes and community benefit flow out.

NatureProsperity is the third venture of its founder, Jeremy Leggett, the earth scientist who built the solar company Solarcentury before its sale to Norway's Statkraft in 2020, and who founded the solar-lighting charity SolarAid. He now aims to replicate those successes in nature.

The need NatureProsperity targets is felt acutely in the Highlands: depopulation, and a workforce that cannot find homes where the work is. NatureProsperity is designed to keep land in nature and people on the land.

NatureProsperity is the route through which investment flows into a portfolio of related companies that support one another, as an evergreen vehicle holding long-term stakes while its investees operate independently. Highlands Rewilding and MAKAR, the two existing investees, continue to operate as themselves. Alongside them, NatureProsperity is establishing two new companies, in forestry and in community building.

Quote 1 (Jeremy Leggett):

"The timber we grow in biodiverse forests feeds house manufacturing, houses made of wood that are affordable. Those houses are deployed at scale in the rural economy, and they provide homes for the workforce that, vitally, is going to be needed if we are going to hit the national targets in reversing biodiversity collapse. That's the pump, the Nature Prosperity Pump." (Dr Jeremy Leggett, founder of NatureProsperity and chief executive of Highlands Rewilding).

Quote 2 (Neil Edgar, MAKAR):

"We are proud to be involved. Our timber-rich homes have been developed and honed for over two decades and, with the investment NatureProsperity can bring, we will be able to deliver at scale, within thriving rural landscapes, making a very real contribution to solving the rural housing crisis and building local communities." (Neil Edgar, Chief Executive, MAKAR).

MAKAR builds its homes from locally sourced Scottish timber, which is milled and precision-manufactured to lock away around one tonne of CO2 per cubic metre. MAKAR's precision off-site manufacturing system, currently capable of producing up to 30 homes per year, is designed to scale in step with growing demand for Scottish-timber housing.

MAKAR's work has drawn recognition beyond the housing sector. On 10 April 2026, First Minister John Swinney visited MAKAR, touring the prototype Paradigm home from its Optima Homes range: a precision-manufactured, timber-rich affordable home built from Scottish materials and assembled on site in a single week. He said: "What I learned at MAKAR today is two important points. Firstly, that we can improve house design and do that in an affordable way that has a benefit for the long term of the individual residents. Secondly, that there are ways in which we can apply innovation and creativity to make sure that we succeed in our housing objectives a great deal more quickly than we might ordinarily believe was the case. I think it's a great contribution from MAKAR's innovation in the housing market in Scotland."

To find out more, visit natureprosperity.co.uk and follow NatureProsperity on LinkedIn.