Support Services are the last resort for the thousands of people represented (and the hundreds not represented) in today’s homelessness statistics. But they are at risk. Cyrenians director of services, Amy Hutton responds to the worsening homelessness crisis and makes the case for investment i

Amid ongoing reforms to England’s private rented sector, Prof Ken Gibb explores Ben Cooper’s call for a new housing quality standard to tackle the crisis of substandard rental homes. Against the backdrop of the legislation moving through Westminster to reform the private rented sector in

Back in 2016, Eline Lofgren, an investment director at Evelyn Partners Investment Management Services, wrote an article about housing associations and their untapped potential. The article was first published in the Spring 2016 issue of 'Charities Management' and below Eline brings it up to speed fo

In the latest CIOB column for our sister publication Scottish Construction Now, Jocelyne Fleming, senior policy & public affairs officer – Scotland, looks ahead to the legislative changes set to impact the construction sector in the year ahead. 2025 promises to be a busy year for Holyrood

Jimmy Black relives a few housing decades with Laurie Naumann, a campaigner on single homelessness, and a founder of Kingdom Housing Association. This is a story about Laurie Naumann, who recently retired after 44 years as a board member at Kingdom Housing Association. But it’s also a step bac

Jimmy Black cycled to Stornoway to meet Calum (Barney) MacKay, chair of TPAS Scotland and long-standing tenant activist. Barney is a trade unionist, and that explains a lot. Trades unions teach their active members how to do many useful things, including basic skills, like how to run a meeting or th

Jimmy Black meets the energetic Evie Copland, multi-award-winner and housing evangelist. “The biggest problem is … how do I change the world with this?” Evie Copland is finishing her Master's in Housing Studies, and she has been a distinguished student. In 2021 she won the Malcolm

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

“If we can get 90% of it right, I'd be delighted if somebody else came up with the other 10% and built on that. That's the history of social housing, right? Standing on the shoulders of giants and keeping getting better and better and better. We're just part of that chain.” Kieran Findla

Below is a full transcript of episode 63 of the Scottish Housing News Podcast titled ‘Accessible housing (part 4) with Simon Fitzpatrick'. Listen to the episode here.

“Partnership work is about relationships, it's knowing people, it's understanding each of us have roles and responsibilities but keeping in mind what we're all trying to achieve at the end of the day and that's the outcomes for people that live in our communities to allow them to thrive and su

Below is a full transcript of episode 62 of the Scottish Housing News Podcast titled ‘Accessible housing (part 3) with Jacquie Pepper and Elaine Ritchie’. Listen to the episode here.

Following a conversation with Simon Fitzpatrick for the Scottish Housing News Podcast, Jimmy Black thinks about wheels and lifts, beautiful new Blackwood Homes and folks stuck up thousands of tenement stairs. Wheels. Perhaps architects should have an app which lets them push a virtual pram through e

Jimmy Black hears about some great work happening in Perth & Kinross; then thinks about people excluded from the housing market by high prices and poverty. We’re running out of words. We’ve used “housing emergency” to explain the failure of our housing markets to provide

Jimmy Black hopes Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs) will find inspiration at the Housing & Social Care Accessibility Summit, after a chat with Hanover Scotland's Angela Currie.

Jimmy Black thinks about wheelchairs, accessible houses, cycling on grass and a conversation with Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP.

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.

HACT has highlighted the success of its Fuel Fund scheme which has distributed more than £7 million to social housing residents across England, Scotland and Wales since the programme began in 2020. The initiative has provided much needed energy support to households, enabling thousands of fami

More than a third of all households in Scotland are estimated to have spent at least 10% of their incomes after housing costs on keeping their homes warm, according to the latest Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) for 2023.

Orkney Islands Council and the local Warmworks team have been helping make local homes cosier at a record pace in recent months, with funding awarded to the county by the Scottish Government all but spoken for just over halfway through the project year.

Brio Retirement Living has opened its Landale Court in Chapelton as a ‘Warm Hub’ this winter to help local people in need of warmth or companionship.

More than 10,000 children are living in temporary accommodation across Scotland after an increase of 6% over a period of 12 months, new figures have revealed.

Support Services are the last resort for the thousands of people represented (and the hundreds not represented) in today’s homelessness statistics. But they are at risk. Cyrenians director of services, Amy Hutton responds to the worsening homelessness crisis and makes the case for investment i

Social care provider, national charity and Registered Social Landlord Blue Triangle has kicked off its 50th anniversary by launching a podcast. ‘A Voice in the Dark’ shines a light on the people Blue Triangle supports and the staff making a difference on the front line. Founded in 1975,

Researchers at the University of Dundee, in partnership with NHS Education for Scotland, are leading training for oral health professionals who support people who are homeless or in prison. People in these circumstances face many challenges in accessing oral healthcare, says lead research programmer

Temporary restrictions on rent increases in the private rented sector will be withdrawn at the end of March 2025, the Scottish Government has confirmed. The measures were introduced in 2022 to help people during the cost-of-living crisis and were due to come to an end in March.

The City of Edinburgh Council has agreed changes to its licensing policy on short-term lets (STLs) that will water down key health and safety requirements for homesharers during the Festival period to try to ease the acute shortages of visitor accommodation.

More than half of Scotland’s landlords are considering removing properties from the market, new research has found.  According to a December 2024 survey by the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL), 53% of landlords are now considering reducing the size of their portfolios. 

The Scottish Government has struck a balance on rent controls but the policy has yet to be tested, property agent membership body Propertymark has told MSPs. The Housing (Scotland) Bill was introduced on 26 March 2024 and will require local authorities to study rent levels in their jurisdictions at

Housing minister Paul McLennan has written to the UK Government calling on them to reverse the recent budget decision to keep rates at 2024-25 levels for the coming year. In his letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mr McLennan said the move will further widen the gap between Local

Funding for local authorities to test and improve how they deliver wrap-around support for parents and families will be doubled to more than £6 million by the 2025-26 budget, the Scottish Government has revealed. Social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the government's Fairer Fut

More than 456,000 people are due to receive inter Heating Payments totalling £26.8 million this winter, social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville will tell MSPs today. Updating the Scottish Parliament on support with fuel costs for people on low incomes, Ms Somerville will confirm the S

West Lothian Council has approved plans to reduce the priority level for Scottish Welfare Fund grants, which will mean more local people will be eligible. The council administers both Crisis and Community Care grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund, to support vulnerable West Lothian families. Crisis