Jimmy Black

Jimmy Black runs his eye over the latest Solace Scotland report, which calls for urgent action to address a “housing emergency”.

“The best way to encourage tenant participation is to be a terrible landlord”. It sounds like an essay topic for a housing student, but these were the words of David Bookbinder spoken on the Scottish Housing News Podcast. SHN editor Kieran Findlay and I recorded an episode on tenant part

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 wonders if tenants will end up paying for zero emissions heating systems, and notes that industry innovators like River Clyde Homes and Warmworks are finding ways to reduce that risk.

Following the latest episode of the Scottish Housing News Podcast in which Nick Pollard and Julie McDowell share their environmental, social and governance (ESG) expertise, Jimmy Black ponders what this means for other housing associations and their boards.

Jimmy Black ponders mandatory housing education.

England’s housing secretary Michael Gove is making housing qualifications mandatory for 25,000 senior housing managers across England. That throws up some questions for Scotland… principally, should we follow Gove’s lead? Would that help us improve standards and maybe prevent thi

Jimmy Black says it’s ok for Shelter Scotland to demand the impossible. Someone has to.

Jimmy Black explores Fit Homes, modular building, the Rural Housing Burden and shifting mid-market rents out of the private sector… all inspired by the latest episode of the Scottish Housing News Podcast.

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

Housing has a minister all to itself for the first time in a while. Paul McLennan MSP has been appointed and on the face of things, he’s well qualified for the job. He served 15 years in local government; he sits on the Local Government and Housing Committee; and he’s a member of 24 cro

Jimmy Black warms to the government’s plans for passive houses. I may have groaned when I heard that all new homes are to be ‘passive houses’, complying with a strict standard covering airtightness and energy use. I thought… here’s another green inspired policy lunge w

Scottish Housing News correspondent Jimmy Black chuckles his way around the first day of CIH Scotland's Housing Festival in Glasgow which grappled with the very serious issue of innovation within the social housing sector. Housing events can be cheerful, and the final session at yesterday’s CI

Jimmy Black on ALACHO’s efforts to tackle damp, homelessness and the need to house refugees.

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