Opinion

As part of the programme to mark 20 years since the creation of the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) looks at how Scotland's housing landscape has changed over the last 20 years. This article was originally published on the SPICe website.

Martyn Evans shares some of the key themes from last month’s Scottish Housing Policy Conference 2019, co-hosted by CaCHE and Policy Scotland, the theme of which was ‘Housing and Inclusive Growth: Revitalising Connections’. Last month, I chaired the Scottish Housing Policy Conferenc

Lisa Kinroy on the upcoming extension of Freedom of Information legislation to registered social landlords. From 11 November this year, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) will apply to RSLs, giving their tenants similar access to information as their local authority counterparts.

With less than two months to respond to Graham Simpson MSP’s Proposed New-Build Homes (Buyer Protection) (Scotland) members Bill, Harry C. Smith, partner and head of housebuilder & construction at Gillespie Macandrew LLP, shares his views. There have been a number of attempts down the year

Martin Gavin, head of external relations at the Homeless Network, provides the third of four blogs in the lead up to Scotland’s Housing First Conference on 22 May 2019.  When it comes to Housing First in Scotland, the five Pathfinders that we talked about in previous blogs – Aberdee

Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown reviews progress on housing and homelessness since 1999. 1999 seems both close and very distant now. It’s hard to recall the days when housing debate for Scotland, at a parliamentary level, used to be squeezed into an annual 90-minute slot and the very, v

Doug Gibson, Business & Innovation Manager at the Homeless Network, provides the second of four blogs in the lead up to Scotland’s major Housing First conference on 22 May 2019.

Melanie Rees from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) reflects on a social housing research project by the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) and introduces new research on social housing allocations. One of the key questions posed in our 2018 research project Rethinking socia

RSLs must embrace the opportunity provided by the new Regulatory Framework to comply with human rights legislation, writes Carole Ewart.

Shelter Scotland campaigns & policy officer, Aoife Deery, discusses the Scottish Government’s consultation on its plans to change the rules around local connection and intentionality with regards to homelessness. The last time I blogged about the Scottish Government’s new plan to end

Laura Brennan, trainee solicitor at Govan Law Centre, explains the pitfalls of giving equity away to a quick home buy company in times of financial distress. Our recent Sheriff Appeal Court case of Santander -v- C emphasises the importance of homeowners seeking legal advice should their mortgage len

Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations (GWSF) director David Bookbinder issues a defence of volunteer-based governance models. Mike Bruce’s article on paying housing association board members was thoughtfully put together, but, as I’m sure he’ll have expected, c

Claire Frew, policy & impact manager at the Homeless Network, provides the first of four blogs in the lead up to Scotland’s major Housing First conference on 22 May 2019. In just four weeks’ time people will come together from all over Scotland and beyond for the third annual Housing

City Building’s executive director, Dr Graham Paterson, on how education must work with employers to encourage more young people and women into construction. It’s no secret that the construction industry suffers from a gender imbalance. Across the UK, around 11% of the construction workf

Mike Bruce suggests an alternative headline for Scottish Housing News, and offers an informative look at the question of board remuneration in the process. Reading the recent article in which Kelly Adams of RSM considers the question of payment for board members in our sector, I was struck by just h