News

An £8 million package to support the wellbeing of health and social care staff across Scotland has been announced by the Scottish Government. The increased support will help fund a number of immediate recovery actions and lead to the development of a National Wellbeing programme.

East Lothian Council’s draft accounts for financial year 2020/21 and overall financial position at the end of the financial year (period to 31 March) were discussed at a council meeting last Tuesday.  The draft financial position set out at the end of March 2021, reflects additional COVID

Population and housing estimates reveal greater urgency of addressing the needs of an ageing population, according to Age Scotland. The data, released on Friday by National Records of Scotland, reveals that the number of people aged 65+ has increased by 256,600 in the last 20 years.

The Scottish Greens are calling on the Scottish Government to guarantee full mitigation of the benefit cap. The benefit cap is a UK Government policy that caps the amount of social security a household can receive, regardless of the level of need.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has welcomed encouraging changes from the Scottish Government around adult disability payments, but is urging the government to go further to improve the payment for more disabled people by scrapping the 20 metre rule. The Scottish Government’s response to the co

Aberdeen Cyrenians has launched a new style of letting agency based on private social letting and the Housing First principles. By providing greater levels of support for both landlords in the private rental sector and prospective tenants, Settled: Homes for All aims to reduce two key issu

Aaron Hill and Carolyn Lochhead have joined the executive team at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) as director of policy and membership and director of public affairs and communications respectively. The new appointments complete SFHA’s execu

Fife Council has approved proposals in principle to bring forward a detailed programme to build 1,200 more council houses between 2022 and 2024.

East Lothian Council has agreed to its response to a Scottish Government consultation on establishing minimum housing land requirements for inclusion in National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). The council has agreed that an "infrastructure first" approach to future development is required.

Crosbie Homes, the new build housing arm of Morris & Spottiswood, has delivered high-quality social housing in Oxton and Pathhead after entering into its first new-build contracts with both Scottish Borders Housing Association (SBHA) and Midlothian Council.

The Scottish Housing Regulator has written to all social landlords to give advice to support them to prepare their Annual Assurance Statements. The Statements are due in the Regulator by October 31.

The Social Housing Resilience Group’s Guide to Managing Services has been updated to reflect the latest information on Covid-19 restrictions. Earlier this week, the First Minister confirmed that there would be a delay to the indicative timetable, initially published in March 2021, and an updat

Time is running out for people to apply for 50 further education bursaries from Wheatley Group. The bursaries are worth up to £1500 for full-time students and £750 for part-time studies and help support people on college and university courses.

The UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee has published its report into welfare policy in Scotland in which MPs have called on the UK Government and Scottish Government to improve information sharing to implement policy and to work together to improve benefit take-up.

Clackmannanshire Council has discussed options to bring Greenfield House in Alloa back into council ownership after councillors expressed their concern at the deterioration of the site. The B Listed building and former council headquarters was sold to developer Kapital Residential Ltd