In an exclusive for Scottish Housing News, Hans Mitchell, client relations director at fire safety engineering consultancy Harmony Fire, summarises the Scottish Government’s response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry recommendations. The recent Scottish Government Response to the Grenfell Tower In

With the upcoming introduction of Awaab’s Law, social housing providers must act now to prepare for the new legal requirements aimed at safeguarding tenant health and safety, writes Tom Morton, CEO of Glasgow-based digital health innovator Archangel. 

Dr Jenny Preece, from the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), reflects on a recent event hosted by the Centre for Ageing Better, where researchers unveiled a national evaluation of home improvement services, highlighting their impact on dignity,  independence, and housing cond

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

Below is a full transcript of episode 66 of the Scottish Housing News Podcast titled ‘Martin Wilkie-McFarlane on Wellhouse, regulatory intervention and more'. Listen to the episode here.

“Compulsory purchase reform is absolutely critical because we do need a backstop if landowners aren't prepared to come to the table on reasonable terms.” In this episode of the Scottish Housing News Podcast, Kieran Findlay and Jimmy Black speak to two guests who have new proposals to hel

Below is a full transcript of episode 65 of the Scottish Housing News Podcast titled ‘Rural housing: Public land acquisition and the Right to Live with Hamish Trench and Ailsa Raeburn'. Listen to the episode here.

“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

Jimmy Black digs into the Scottish Land Commission’s new report, Community Land Scotland’s “Right to Live” and living on Solid Ground.

A 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

For 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

Almost half of Scots are worried about being able to afford their household energy bills over the coming year, according to a poll published ahead of the latest Ofgem price cap rise. The Survation poll, conducted for Advice Direct Scotland, found that 46% of people are concerned about their ability

The Scottish Fuel Poverty Advisory Panel has issued a new evidence report reflecting on what the impending increase to the energy price cap means for rural communities and findings from its recent investigation into rural and remote fuel poverty.  

The Scottish Government has called on UK Government ministers to urgently deliver a targeted energy bill discount to protect customers in greatest need and drive down high fuel poverty rates. The final report of the Social Tariff Working Group – comprising energy suppliers, consumer and fuel p

The Scottish winter fuel payment challenge is being livestreamed today. The petition for judicial review in the case of Fanning and Fanning v the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and the Scottish Ministers is being heard before Lady Hood in the Court of Session. Proceedings began yesterday a

UK infrastructure support company Amey and recruitment firm Hays have partnered with Prince William as part of his Homewards programme. Created in collaboration with EveryYouth, the Project Flourish initiative aims to tackle youth homelessness by creating pathways to meaningful employment for some o

Families in Edinburgh who have been homeless or living in temporary accommodation are being housed as part of an innovative scheme in the city.

Scottish Labour has lodged a motion which aims to protect children’s rights as the number of children in temporary accommodation reaches record levels. In a Parliamentary debate yesterday ahead of stage two of the Housing (Scotland) Bill being considered next month, Scottish Labour housing spo

ARK Consultancy has raised £2,000 for The Ootsider, a Livingston based Community Interest Company which provides sleeping coats for rough sleepers. The ARK team met John Keogh, founder and CEO of The Ootsider at the CIH Scotland Housing Festival last week where they heard more about the compan

Share is proud to announce the launch of a free educational resource designed exclusively for tenants in Scotland’s private rented and mid-market rented sectors. This initiative, made possible through funding from SafeDeposits Scotland Charitable Trust, aims to support both new and existing te

A landlord who was refused an eviction order against a tenant in rent arrears after a housing tribunal found that there would be significant detrimental impact on the tenant has won an appeal to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland against the decision and granted the order sought. Appellant Scott Mackel

Tenants' union Living Rent is calling on the Scottish Government to extend protections after highlighting research which shows rent increases could double after the emergency rent adjudication measures end on 31 March. Newly updated Private Residential Tenancy rent adjudication figures have found th

A new report published by the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) aims to address the shortfall in official data regarding landlords within the Scottish Private Rented Sector (PRS). 'The changing characteristics and motivations of Scottish private rented sector landlords and their i

The process of transferring over 66,000 adults in Scotland from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to the new Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance has begun. Payments will now be managed by Social Security Scotland instead of the Department for Work and Pensions.

More than 210,000 children in Scotland will be trapped in poverty by 2030 without urgent investment from the Scottish Government, new analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research Scotland (IPPR Scotland) has warned.

A new benefit for pensioners is now open for applications in 13 more local authority areas in Scotland.   Pension Age Disability Payment has been extended to Aberdeenshire, Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dundee City, Falkirk, Fife, Moray, Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles), Perth and Kinross and Stir

Cairn Housing Association’s chief executive Audrey Simpson has spoken out against the UK government’s planned £5 billion welfare cuts, warning they will have devastating consequences for disabled people and those already struggling to make ends meet. The government’s proposal