It has miles of beautiful coastline, close-knit communities and a quality of life that many in the major cities would envy.

Moray is ranked among Scotland's top five rural areas for its quality favoured for their quality of life, with more than 93 per cent of residents viewing themselves as being in good or fairly good health.

But despite its attractions and good quality of life, the north-east location is struggling to attract enough teachers, with some vacant posts were attracting no suitable candidates at all.

There have even been warnings that pupils could be sent home because of 70 teaching vacancies in 53 of its schools. The council's advertising budget has been burst and officials in the education department have had to go back to help in the classroom.

In an unprecedented move to tackle the problem, free housing is to be offered for up to a year to teachers coming to work in the area's schools from elsewhere.

Local house builder Springfield Properties has entered into a unique partnership agreement with the local authority to help address the problem.

It is offering six months' free accommodation to teachers coming to Moray from outwith the area.

The company has put 10 of its new two-bedroom properties at the council's disposal. Combined with the council's relocation package, equivalent to six months further rent, this offer could mean new teachers from outside Moray living rent-free for a year. The teachers would have the opportunity to buy the properties if they wished, at any point.

It follows an approach to the council by Elgin-based Springfield Properties chairman Sandy Adam after it emerged that the council was facing a chronic problem in attracting teachers to Moray.

On announcing the new partnership, Innes Smith, managing director at Springfield, said:

"Moray is a great place to live and work and people who come to work here often stay forever. We need to attract new people to live in the region and good teachers are an essential part of a successful community. We hope this offer will be enough to persuade some new teachers to come and try out life in Moray.

"We have offered the Council a total of ten flats in Elgin, Forres and Buckie. It can be expensive to move and we hope that the offer of rent-free accommodation for six months will be enough to offset some of those costs. We work in partnership with Moray Council on a number of projects and we are pleased to be able to help with this one."

Moray Council already offers a relocation package to successful candidates for teaching posts which prove hard to fill and it is hoped the offer of six months' free accommodation will serve as an added incentive.

The council's director of education and social care, Laurence Findlay, welcomed the initiative.

He said: "Our shortage of teachers has been well covered in the media and we are delighted that Springfield Properties have been so keen to get involved and support us in attracting more teachers to come and work in Moray. I certainly hope this offer will increase interest among teachers in coming to Moray."

Sandy Adam, Springfield's chairman added: "Everyone at Springfield is excited by the idea that we could help to bring more teachers to Moray."

Larry Flanagan, General Secretary of Scotland's largest teaching union the EIS said:

"Pay and conditions for teachers are agreed nationally and the EIS remains committed to this process. However, it is open to local authorities to provide additional incentives of this type to attract teachers to come and work in their schools. While we will await further detail on the Moray scheme, some local authorities are increasingly looking at this type of 'golden hello' initiative to help address teacher shortages."