Jimmy Black

“The heat’s already there, we’re just moving it”. Jimmy Black mulls over a conversation with Eoghan Maguire, director of heat networks - Scotland at Vattenfall UK. Getting people to work together is seldom easy, particularly when it involves money and hard decisions. It makes

Jimmy Black considers whether the social housing sector and the Scottish Government are effectively measuring the carbon cost of home improvements.

Jimmy Black is looking for credible solutions to Scotland's housing emergency and wants SHN readers to help.

After recording an episode of the Scottish Housing News Podcast on the subject of the proposed rent adjudication scheme for the private rented sector, Jimmy Black shares his own experiences.

Jimmy Black and Kieran Findlay spent 45 minutes of the SHN podcast discussing just about everything important in Scottish housing with the hugely experienced Craig Stirrat, Group CEO of Grampian Housing Association. Jimmy picks out the bits he found most fascinating... Council house stock transfer?

Never mind what you think about it, the rejection by shareholders of Places for People’s bid for Reidvale Housing Association throws up some big issues.

Jimmy Black reflects on a conversation with architect Laurence Wood about rebuilding homes after natural disasters. Seeing your home completely destroyed by a typhoon, an earthquake, or an airstrike must be one of the worst things that can happen to you. Once your government and the international ai

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 ponders on placemaking, and a 20 minute neighbourhood which is 864 years old When I think about it, I grew up in a perfect ‘place’. In our burgh of 2,000 people there were shops … an ironmonger, draper, newsagent, three butchers, two bakers, one fishmonger, one shoe sh

Jimmy Black thinks the rest of us have a lot to learn from Perth & Kinross, and Aberdeenshire. Let’s ask a hard question. Why is homelessness so low in Perth & Kinross when over in West Dunbartonshire it’s very high? Why are the figures in Aberdeenshire so much better than they a

What is a housing professional and how do you become such a thing? Jimmy Black tries to think like a 17-year-old school leaver.

Jimmy Black reflects on recent criticism of Scotland's planning system and outlines an interesting legal case which involves NPF4 and West Lothian's Local Development Plan.

Jimmy Black points out some hard truths on homelessness.

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