Eventually encompassing all housing organisations in the city, the Glasgow Housing Register (GHR) has initially started as a pilot in the north west of Glasgow with 13 housing associations involved.

Previously an applicant would have to fill out a new application for every housing association but the GHR aims to eventually cover the entire city with a single application process for social housing.

There are over 100,000 social rented houses in Glasgow, owned and managed by 68 RSLs. Compared to the rest of Scotland, the RSL sector in Glasgow is skewed towards smaller associations, reflecting the community roots of many housing providers operating in the city. There are a very small number of localities based Common Housing Registers (CHRs) already in existence in Glasgow but, under the old system, in the vast majority of cases people need to apply separately to each individual organisation with stock within the area(s) they wish to be housed. In this context, development of a Common Glasgow Housing Register (or GHR) is crucial to both simplifying and maximising access to social housing in the city.

In addition to Glasgow City Council (housing & regeneration services & social work services) the pilot area partners include: Cadder Housing Association, Cernach Housing Association, Charing Cross Housing Association, Drumchapel Housing Co-operative, Glasgow West Housing Association, Kendoon Housing Association, Kingsridge Cleddans Housing Association, Maryhill Housing Association, ng homes, Partick Housing Association, Pineview Housing Association, Queens Cross Housing Association, Sanctuary Scotland Housing Association (Anderston) and Yorkhill Housing Association.

Home Connections has created the underlying web platform for the GHR.

Ninesh Muthiah, CEO of Home Connections, said: “As a company our mission is to put the customer in the driving seat by offering greater power and control over accessing social housing. This project fits our philosophy and we are excited by the possibility of simplifying and speeding up the application process via our intelligent e-forms technology.

“We would like to see many other local authorities and housing associations follow suit, not only in Scotland but also across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It not only simplifies the user journey but also reduces the pressure on back office processing.”