Shelter Scotland

Margaret Burgess A consultation is underway to gather opinions on a new code of practice for letting agents and the requirement for letting agents to undergo training before they can be added to a register.

West Dunbartonshire Council has defended its evictions approach saying the method is only ever used as a last resort. An increase in evictions by the local authority from eight last year to 34 this year has been described as “very worrying” by housing charity Shelter Scotland.

East Lothian Council has pledged its support for a campaign calling for reform of the private rented sector. The council joins local authorities in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee by signing up to support Shelter Scotland’s Make Renting Right campaign which aims to make Scotland’s growing private

Illegal rent fees are still being charged by letting agents across Scotland, a BBC investigation has found. The Scottish Government clarified rent laws in 2012, specifying that any fee beyond rent and a refundable deposit was illegal.

Sarah Boyack The cost of renting private sector accommodation in Edinburgh has prompted fresh calls for the introduction of rent controls.

The average price for a house sold in Scotland was 3.5 per cent higher in the first quarter of 2015-16 than compared to the same period last year, according to new figures. Official statistics published by Registers of Scotland (RoS) revealed that the average house price in Scotland from April to Ju

Debbie King reports back on Shelter Scotland’s Illegal Evictions campaign We’ve now come to the end of the Illegal Eviction – Know Your Rights campaign where we worked with Police Scotland, Crimestoppers Scotland and the Scottish Association of Landlords. The information campaign raised awaren

Graeme Brown As many as 1,000 young Scots will be forced into homelessness as a result of the “catastrophic” impact Tory welfare cuts could have on our most vulnerable 18 to 21-year-olds, Shelter Scotland has warned.

Homelessness levels in Scotland could rise as part of a Scottish Government drive to crack down on overcrowded houses, charities and housing chiefs have warned. As reported in The Scotsman, the concerns have been prompted over the introduction of Overcrowding Statutory Notices (OSN) aimed at guardin

Players from Motherwell FC turned up to surprise staff and volunteers as they opened the doors to a new charity furniture shop yesterday. Defenders Steven Hammell and Craig Reid helped to carry donations into Shelter Scotland’s furniture shop, greeted customers and signed items for sale. All proce

Stars from the world of stand-up – including Irish funny man Tommy Tiernan and critically-feted character comedy duo Max and Ivan - are coming to the Edinburgh Fringe in aid of housing and homelessness charity Shelter. In the follow up to 2014’s hugely successful Stand up for Shelter, other awar

By Paul Bradley at Shelter Scotland In Scotland’s fragile housing market, just having a house – irrespective of quality, location and affordability – is a good position for anyone to be in. Of course, many people do have decent homes, but the number of households on waiting lists for social ho

A 14-year-old girl is cycling over 500 miles from Edinburgh to London to raise money to help homeless and badly housed people in Scotland. Grace Stewart-Piercy, from Lanchester, will cycle for seven days with support from her dad Simon, from Shelter Scotland’s headquarters on Charlotte Square, Edi

The 100-year story of Scotland’s housing crisis has been depicted by an informative and educational online multimedia timeline, launched today by Shelter Scotland. From the rent strikes and campaigning of Mary Barbour in Govan in 1915 and the slum clearances of the 1930s, to the emergence of high-

By James Battye at Shelter Scotland This week National Registers of Scotland released their updated household estimates for 2015. They show that the number of Scottish households has grown by 18,200 in the past year. In 2014, there were 2.42 million households in Scotland, an increase of around 169,