The Inner House of the Court of Session has refused an appeal against a lord ordinary’s decision to refuse to reduce a decision of Glasgow City Council not to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment in respect of the demolition of four tower blocks in Maryhill.
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See all articlesThe Scottish Land Commission is ushering in a new chapter with the appointment of Dr Lucy Beattie, Dr Calum MacLeod, and Robert Black as its latest commissioners. Bringing a wealth of expertise in community engagement, sustainable development, and tenant farming, these new leaders are poised to driv
Whiteinch and Scotstoun Housing Association (WSHA) has appointed Mareta Greig as its new director of housing and communities. Mareta will assume her role with WSHA in March 2025 and brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in the housing sector, having previously served in senior positio
Ofgem’s board has extended Jonathan Brearley’s appointment as CEO to 31 January 2030. Mark McAllister, chair of Ofgem, said: “Jonathan has led Ofgem through unprecedented challenges over the past five years: the fallout from COVID-19, energy market turbulence and the price s
Edinburgh World Heritage has appointed Megan Veronesi as interim director. She steps into the role previously held by Christina Sinclair, who leaves the organisation after four years as director.
Almond Housing Association has appointed Frank Spratt to take on the role of project delivery manager to oversee the removal of RAAC (Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete) from 220 of its properties With a Masters in construction management and many years working in the industry, predominantly wit
Opinion
See all articlesWith elections in Scotland and Wales approaching in 2026, Professor Ken Gibb outlines pressing housing issues and opportunities for policy reform in the first in a new regular series of blogs about housing.
Cruden Group MD Steven Simpson discusses the outlook for house building in the year ahead and reveals why 2025 is a time of opportunity and optimism. As 2025 dawns, the housebuilding industry finds itself at a crossroads, still facing economic and political challenges, yet buoyed by increased opport
Professor Ken Gibb, director of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), reflects on the previous 12 months. The year 2024 was one of elections and government change around the world and in the UK. It also saw riots in the summer, more extreme weather, continuing wars, and the
Marcus Di Rollo, lettings director at Gilson Gray, has outlined six key themes that will shape Scotland’s property market in the coming year from the continued supply-demand imbalance and recalibrating rents to the evolving debate over short-term lets and eviction processes. So far, the
Training organisation Share highlights its upcoming Workplace Wellbeing Conference.
Housing Champions
See all articlesSHN's Housing Champions feature returns with Lorna Cameron, chief executive of Horizon Housing, who speaks to Margaret Taylor about the inextricable link between accessible housing and social care. It is almost 35 years since Lorna Cameron started her career at what was Strathclyde Regiona
Jimmy Black relives a few housing decades with Laurie Naumann, a campaigner on single homelessness, and a founder of Kingdom Housing Association. This is a story about Laurie Naumann, who recently retired after 44 years as a board member at Kingdom Housing Association. But it’s also a step bac
Jimmy Black cycled to Stornoway to meet Calum (Barney) MacKay, chair of TPAS Scotland and long-standing tenant activist. Barney is a trade unionist, and that explains a lot. Trades unions teach their active members how to do many useful things, including basic skills, like how to run a meeting or th
Jimmy Black meets the energetic Evie Copland, multi-award-winner and housing evangelist. “The biggest problem is … how do I change the world with this?” Evie Copland is finishing her Master's in Housing Studies, and she has been a distinguished student. In 2021 she won the Malcolm
Jimmy Black meets Bill Banks, retiring CEO of the multi award-winning Kingdom Group. Bill Banks looks relaxed, calm and entirely at home in his relatively modest office at Kingdom Housing Association. He’s a man at the height of his powers with a very solid track record of achievement. But Bil
Scottish Housing News Podcast
See all articlesPodcast: The Prospecthill Court Retrofit Project with Richard Turnock, Duncan Smith and Ryan Ferrier
“We go into this project not looking for awards but it's good actually to recognise the contribution of our staff and it's also a good way for our suppliers and the other stakeholders in this to be recognised as well. So it's a win-win-win for customers, us and the contractors.” If you c
“If we can get 90% of it right, I'd be delighted if somebody else came up with the other 10% and built on that. That's the history of social housing, right? Standing on the shoulders of giants and keeping getting better and better and better. We're just part of that chain.” Kieran Findla
Below is a full transcript of episode 63 of the Scottish Housing News Podcast titled ‘Accessible housing (part 4) with Simon Fitzpatrick'. Listen to the episode here.
“Partnership work is about relationships, it's knowing people, it's understanding each of us have roles and responsibilities but keeping in mind what we're all trying to achieve at the end of the day and that's the outcomes for people that live in our communities to allow them to thrive and su
Below is a full transcript of episode 62 of the Scottish Housing News Podcast titled ‘Accessible housing (part 3) with Jacquie Pepper and Elaine Ritchie’. Listen to the episode here.
Black's Blog
See all articlesA trip to Greenock to see the award-winning retrofit project at Prospecthill Court for the Scottish Housing News Podcast provides Jimmy Black with renewed vigour regarding the potential for multi-storey to play a part in Scotland's housing landscape. Take an elderly multi high above the Clyde on an
Following a conversation with Simon Fitzpatrick for the Scottish Housing News Podcast, Jimmy Black thinks about wheels and lifts, beautiful new Blackwood Homes and folks stuck up thousands of tenement stairs. Wheels. Perhaps architects should have an app which lets them push a virtual pram through e
Jimmy Black hears about some great work happening in Perth & Kinross; then thinks about people excluded from the housing market by high prices and poverty. We’re running out of words. We’ve used “housing emergency” to explain the failure of our housing markets to provide
Jimmy Black hopes Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs) will find inspiration at the Housing & Social Care Accessibility Summit, after a chat with Hanover Scotland's Angela Currie.
Jimmy Black thinks about wheelchairs, accessible houses, cycling on grass and a conversation with Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP.
Our Housing Heritage
See all articlesFor the next edition of Our Housing Heritage, journalist and digital history specialist Chris Holme shares the story of how First World War servicemen came to reside in the rural village of Longniddry. Unlikely as it sounds, the Longniddry Piggery provided Britain’s first purpose-built homes f
In the latest article in the ongoing Our Housing Heritage series, Scottish Housing News discusses the Glasgow Rent Strikes of 1915. In the absence of social housing, families across the UK in 1915 were at the mercy of private landlords who could hike rents and evict tenants at will with little restr
The Springburn office of ng homes is named after Ned Donaldson. But who was Ned Donaldson? Kieran Findlay recalls the contribution of the activist and the post-war battle to stop the privatisation of council housing at Merrylee. It was a cold sleety December day in 1951. Slum landlordism and sublett
Duncan Smith, who works in the social housing sector, has contributed this piece as part of his quest for more information about housing architect George Gibson. Several years ago, just after starting my current job, I undertook some research on the properties we were refurbishing at the time. I fou
Next month marks the centenary of Scotland’s first council housing estate, the Logie Estate in Dundee. Lauren Brown reports.
Fuel Poverty
See all articlesOrkney Islands Council and the local Warmworks team have been helping make local homes cosier at a record pace in recent months, with funding awarded to the county by the Scottish Government all but spoken for just over halfway through the project year.
Brio Retirement Living has opened its Landale Court in Chapelton as a ‘Warm Hub’ this winter to help local people in need of warmth or companionship.
More than 456,000 people are due to receive inter Heating Payments totalling £26.8 million this winter, social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville will tell MSPs today. Updating the Scottish Parliament on support with fuel costs for people on low incomes, Ms Somerville will confirm the S
Acting climate action minister Alasdair Allan has called on the UK Government to direct "urgent and proportionate action" to protect tens of thousands of Scottish households ahead of the planned switch-off of the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) later this year. Many energy meters in Scotland presentl
In 2023-24, The British Gas Energy Trust (the Trust) was able to support more than 64,000 households across Britain with money and energy advice, emergency fuel payments, white goods and energy debt grants.
Homelessness
See all articlesA vital community space based in Nicholson Square in Edinburgh, which serves 150-200 people experiencing homelessness every week, is facing closure today after unexpectedly being served an eviction notice.
Scottish outdoor clothing manufacturer The Ootsider is to step up its help for people who are homeless after being awarded £40,000 grant funding from First Port.
A new model of care and support for homeless people in Inverclyde has been agreed by the Inverclyde Health and Social Care Partnership. The move towards a community-based approach comes after significant research, planning and consultation and will have a primary focus on early intervention and prev
West Lothian Council is set to submit its final update to its Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan (RRTP) to the Scottish Government, providing an update on efforts to transition to a rapid rehousing approach in the area.
The Scottish Government has been urged to set out fresh plans to tackle homelessness after new research found that 52,363 people were without a home at Christmas in 2023. A parliamentary question submitted by the Scottish Liberal Democrats revealed that on 25th December 2023, there were 30,557 live
PRS
See all articlesA former landlord who alleged that his tenants had stolen a set of shutters and failed to pay for replacement carpets has been refused permission to appeal his two cases against them to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland after it upheld the First-tier Tribunal’s decision in both cases that no los
The Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC) has highlighted a new report which it said "comprehensively refutes the false narrative" that short-term lets are driving the housing crisis in Edinburgh and beyond.
Clan Gordon, the Edinburgh letting agency, has been recognised for its exceptional customer service and commitment to raising industry standards, securing three prestigious awards in 2024. The agency received accolades at two major events in the lettings industry:
Cairn Group has marked a quarter century of building a ‘whole market’ residential property agency across Scotland’s central belt. Within the last year, a series of acquisitions and a comprehensive management restructure with the promotion of its management team to create joint mana
The annual tenant survey carried out by Edinburgh-based letting agent Clan Gordon has revealed that 97% of its tenants would recommend the firm to others. The letting agent said the result reaffirms its commitment to providing a service that places tenants' needs first.
Welfare
See all articlesMore than 456,000 people are due to receive inter Heating Payments totalling £26.8 million this winter, social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville will tell MSPs today. Updating the Scottish Parliament on support with fuel costs for people on low incomes, Ms Somerville will confirm the S
West Lothian Council has approved plans to reduce the priority level for Scottish Welfare Fund grants, which will mean more local people will be eligible. The council administers both Crisis and Community Care grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund, to support vulnerable West Lothian families. Crisis
Thousands of children from disadvantaged backgrounds will benefit from free breakfasts, thanks to £3 million from the Scottish Government. Announced in the draft Budget for 2025-26, Bright Start Breakfasts will help more primary school children get a healthy start to the day. The initiative wi
Payments to people in receipt of benefits will be protected from inflation after the Scottish Parliament passed the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill.
Charities have welcomed the Scottish Government’s decision to reinstate an energy support payment for all pensioners, describing the move as a "huge relief" for older people. Social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville confirmed yesterday that on the roll-out of the new benefit next winte