News

John Swinney Deputy first minister John Swinney has vowed not to increase taxes for low paid workers as MSPs prepare to debate the Draft Budget 2016/17 for the first time at Holyrood later today.

Social justice secretary Alex Neil launching the LAR Housing Trust in Musselburgh An evaluation report into a new investment vehicle that will provide up to 1,000 affordable homes for rent across Scotland has found no negative impacts identified with the scheme.

Plans to introduce an additional supplement on homeowners buying a second home or buy-to-let property will make it even harder for the most vulnerable tenants to get the accommodation they want at a price they can afford, the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) has said. Published by the Scottis

Lang Banks WWF Scotland has urged the Scottish Government to increase its fuel poverty spending after three Holyrood committees challenged its plans.

First minister Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside and Rohini Sharma Joshi, equality, diversity & inclusion manager, at Trust Housing Association An innovative app which assists organisations when communicating with those whose first language isn’t English has been praised by first mini

Groups interested in financial assistance with community projects in Orkney are invited to attend a drop-in session with Orkney Islands Council’s LEADER team. The LEADER programme is aimed at small scale, community driven and innovative projects that support both the local economy and Orkney commu

Energy giant Scottish Power has announced plans to cut standard domestic gas prices by an average of 5.4 per cent from mid-March, the third of the big suppliers to do so in the space of two weeks. The company said the reduction, which will take effect from March 15, would benefit more than one milli

Michael Murray (left) during a university fair in Aberdeen Michael Murray details his time as a Shelter Scotland volunteer

The latest Homeless Spotlight participant is Rowan Alba, a charity working in Edinburgh, Perth and Kinross and Angus offering a range of services to people who are, or are at risk of becoming homeless. Now in its tenth year of independent operation, Rowan Alba has helped around 5000 people in the pa

Women’s refuges in Scotland could face closure because planned changes to housing benefit would leave them with shortfalls of tens of thousands of pounds a year, Scottish Women’s Aid has warned. The charity has “serious concerns” about the impact that the proposed cap on soci

Social landlords can now use a new online portal to apply to the Scottish Housing Regulator for consents or to report notifiable events, making the process quicker and easier. The new approach follows a period of testing with a group of landlords and replaces the existing process of email and corres

An innovative free course designed to help unemployed people living in the east end of Glasgow learn new skills to help them get back into employment came to an end last week, with those taking part attending a celebration event. ‘Learning Works’ is a pioneering employability course joint funded

Glasgow City Council has approved plans to allow a developer to build 90 new flats at North Kelvin Meadow but has also given volunteers a chance to preserve the “community-created” green space. The meadows were council-run football pitches and tennis courts that fell into disrepair in the early

Sarah MacFdyen By Sarah Macfadyen, policy manager at Crisis

A council advertising campaign aimed at tackling the issue of rent arrears is underway in East Dunbartonshire. The campaign, which poses the question ‘Up to your ears in rent arrears?’, will run on local buses and newspapers for the next three weeks.