With the transitional period for existing businesses to apply for a short-term lets licence coming to an end this week, Shoosmiths real estate lawyer Kirsten Belk assesses the new regime and its wider impact. Last year, Scotland’s local authorities were given new powers by

A council planning officer who has been reading articles published by our sister publication Scottish Construtction Now on Scotland’s Broken Planning System has blown the whistle on the technological barriers facing local authority planning departments.

Ahead of a panel discussion event next week, Rachel Munro, examines why for housebuilders, planners and local authorities, heat networks promise to increasingly be a hot topic in the months and years to come. It need not be overstated that Scotland doesn’t have the best weather and despit

Time for another of Craig Sanderson's self-proclaimed "frequent rants" about the use of the word ‘affordable’ to describe housing project proposals. Despite efforts by the City of Edinburgh Council and housing associations, the lack of supply of new homes for social rent (i.e. truly &lsq

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

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

As housing and care providers continue to grapple with Scotland’s ageing population, some are embracing tech more than ever before. Earlier this year, Bield Housing and Care officially launched a digital hub in Linlithgow. Securing £75k in funding from the TAPPI project, it set about sho

The story behind Hanover Scotland’s award-winning development in Drymen has many threads.  Not just Hanover’s first certified Passivhaus development, it is located at the very site of its first ever development in Scotland as a separate entity.

With its latest campaign, the SFHA is aiming to put Housing at the Heart of Scotland and keep it there. It looks to tell stories of the importance of social housing in Scotland and ensure social landlords are given the required support to continue this vital work. In this episode, Kieran Findlay and

The current framework for regulating social landlords in Scotland was introduced in 2019. Since then, tragic incidents here in the UK and worldwide events have changed how RSLs are expected to operate, possibly forever. So in this episode, we’re asking whether the way RSLs are regulated should

If we put digital technology to work, we can perhaps look after our houses and our tenants much better. Jimmy Black reflects on a conversation with Bield about their pioneering work in technology-enabled care. Social housing is waking up to the world of tech. With sensors, we can monitor the humidit

Do passive houses really need to cost more than "normal" ones? And can they still get damp? Jimmy Black explores some themes after a conversation with Angela Currie and Janice McDonald of Hanover Scotland. Decisions, decisions. Take a popular housing scheme in a settled community in one of the lovel

Jimmy Black wishes Scotland had Housing at its Heart, as per the SFHA’s current campaign.

Jimmy Black and Kieran Findlay spent half an hour with the Regulator chatting about dampness and mould, tenant participation, homelessness, small RSLs, big landlords helping little landlords, the private sector and meeting the net zero challenge.

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.

Energy suppliers have been banned from forcibly installing prepayment meters for people over 75 with no support in their house and homes with children aged under 2, thanks to new protections put in place by Ofgem. The energy regulator has today confirmed that the Code of Practice for the involuntary

Environmental charity Changeworks has achieved its biggest impact to date in reducing carbon emissions and helping people in need of energy advice, a new report has revealed. In the context of the accelerating climate emergency and energy crisis, Changeworks’ goal to decarbonise Scotland&rsquo

The Scottish Government has made an award of £6.845 million to help make homes in Glasgow more energy-efficient.

A partnership of housing associations is working with environmental charity Changeworks to launch a new service that will give tenants access to energy information, advice and advocacy.

Homelessness charity Cyrenians and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) have announced a formal partnership agreement that celebrates a shared commitment to improving outcomes for young people.

An annual progress report into the Scottish Government’s work to improve support and services for Scotland’s veterans and their families has highlighted homelessness prevention as an area of concern.

Jimmy Black points out some hard truths on homelessness.

Scottish youth homelessness charity Rock Trust has partnered with Glasgow City Council to expand its successful Housing First for Youth (HF4Y) service into the city for the first time. The team began working with young people in Glasgow in summer 2023, and the programme will be officially launched t

The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland has ordered two landlords, one in Glasgow and another in Edinburgh, to pay at least double the amount of tenancy deposits withheld from their tenants after finding them in breach of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011.

Glasgow City Council's licensing committee has removed a woman from the register of private landlords after “extensive signs” of damp mould were discovered on the walls of a flat.

An application by two landlords for permission to appeal a decision of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland that they had failed to comply with the terms of a Repairing Standard Enforcement Order has been refused by a sheriff of the Upper Tribunal for Scotland.

Average rents in Scotland for new tenancies in the private rented sector have risen by double digits for the third time in a row since the introduction of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022, according to new figures.

An online tool designed to ensure Scots are receiving all the benefits they are entitled to has identified £43 million in unclaimed money over the past year.

The families of more than 316,000 under-16s were benefitting from Scottish Child Payment by the end of June this year, according to the latest official statistics. New figures published today show the payment of £25 per week, which is unique in the UK, was reaching 316,190 - an increase of mor

People living in North Lanarkshire who face financial hardship are being encouraged to contact the council’s Tackling Poverty Team to make sure they are getting all the benefits they are due. This year an additional £40 million was secured for residents from advice services.

Tenants have received a million-pound boost after Thenue Housing staff helped them unlock access to a huge amount of benefits.