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

Fanchea Kelly has been at the centre of events in Scottish housing since the 1980s, and will soon leave Blackwood after a stellar career. Jimmy Black asked her to share some memories with Scottish Housing News. Over 9,000 miles from Scotland, Fanchea Kelly was sitting in an Australian radio studio i

In the second instalment of his Housing Champion interviews, Jimmy Black speaks to housing veteran Tony Cain. You would think Tony Cain would understand how housing works. He’s been head of housing in a council, an inspection manager with Communities Scotland and a policy officer working in go

In the latest article in the ongoing Our Housing Heritage series, Scottish Housing News discusses the Glasgow Rent Strikes of 1915. In the absence of social housing, families across the UK in 1915 were at the mercy of private landlords who could hike rents and evict tenants at will with little restr

The Springburn office of ng homes is named after Ned Donaldson. But who was Ned Donaldson? Kieran Findlay recalls the contribution of the activist and the post-war battle to stop the privatisation of council housing at Merrylee. It was a cold sleety December day in 1951. Slum landlordism and sublett

Duncan Smith, who works in the social housing sector, has contributed this piece as part of his quest for more information about housing architect George Gibson. Several years ago, just after starting my current job, I undertook some research on the properties we were refurbishing at the time. I fou

Next month marks the centenary of Scotland’s first council housing estate, the Logie Estate in Dundee. Lauren Brown reports.

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.

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

Dundee City Council has committed to boosting the number of households in the city eligible to receive grants for energy efficiency home improvements. The Energy Company Obligation (ECO4) Flexible Eligibility scheme focuses on supporting low income and vulnerable households with grants for energy ef

The new energy price cap covering the period from July to the end of September 2023 is to be set at £2,074, Ofgem has announced today.

The Ofgem Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme is to distribute £3 million to 19 organisations across England, Scotland and Wales to support energy reduction projects. In this funding round,15 awards worth a total of £2.5 million are being made from the Main and Small Funds. These pr

Green Home Systems has been appointed to deliver energy saving measures to households across North Ayrshire Council as part of a national fuel poverty scheme. The appointment will bring Green Home Systems into partnership with North Ayrshire Council to deliver energy efficiency measures to residents

Glasgow City Mission has published a report on its Overnight Welcome Centre (OWC) which ran from 1 December 2022 until 31 March 2023.

The barriers that people with disabilities face getting support and exiting homelessness, including difficulty getting a diagnosis, unsuitable environments, and a shortage of accessible housing, have been highlighted in a new report by the Centre for Homelessness Impact.

Rhona McMillan, communications manager, at the Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness, discusses the importance of language in talking about homelessness. The other week, I was delighted to be part of a panel hosted by the University of Glasgow’s Road to Home initiative on the role of language a

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

Rent controls and political uncertainty are affecting investor appetite to fund and deliver Build-to-Rent (BtR) homes in Scotland, according to a new report.

A couple who moved into a property in order to redecorate it for its owners and subsequently refused to move out have lost an appeal against a sheriff’s decision that they occupied the property under a licence agreement rather than a private residential tenancy.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) is calling for a ban on landlords who evict tenants illegally as part of a five-point plan to strengthen the private rented sector.

The average property to rent in Scotland passed the £1,000 mark for the first time in Q1 2023 and the annual rate of growth has continued to climb Year on Year (YOY), according to new research from Citylets.

At least 630,000 families with children have been pushed on to Universal Credit since before the pandemic, new figures from Action for Children suggest.

An estimated 20,000 additional people will become eligible for additional help to buy healthy foods when income thresholds are removed for Best Start Foods payments. The Scottish Government benefit provides help to pregnant women or their partners as well as families with children aged up to three y

Thousands of families of disabled children and young people received an additional £214.10 to help heat their homes this winter, according to the latest official statistics for Child Winter Heating Assistance. More than 26,000 payments worth £5.7 million were made for winter 2022/2023, &

A major new study into the effect of Universal Credit on social housing tenants has revealed the detrimental impact it is having on lives and how it is driving people into debt and poverty.