Opinion

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

Bruce Robertson, lending manager for Scotland at specialist property finance lender Atelier, looks at the challenges that Scotland’s housing market is facing in 2024 and beyond. It is no surprise that Edinburgh Council and, most recently, Glasgow Council have declared housing emergencies. The

Paralympian curling athlete & Accessibility Ambassador for Horizon Housing, Aileen Neilson, reflects on issues raised at the first ever Scottish Parliament for disabled persons last weekend and looks ahead to the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Sunday, December 3rd. It was a

Jocelyne Fleming, policy and public affairs officer for CIOB in Scotland, explains why the Scottish Government is missing a trick in its efforts to support social housing providers. I recently had the privilege of sitting down with representatives from Scottish housing associations and the contracto

As Share launches its “Dealing with grief at Christmas” webinar, Julie-Ann Cloherty, Share’s 'earning and development officer, gives her perspective on why it is so important to recognise that it may not be merry and bright for everyone every festive season

Accountant Stuart Beattie sets out the key challenges of rising costs, sustainability investment requirements and a demand for more stock that are currently facing housing associations. Last week I attended the annual Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) Finance Conference. The ev

Caitriona Jordan, head of retrofit at Built Environment Smarter Transformation (BE-ST), Sara Edmonds, head of citizen engagement at BE-ST, and co-director of the National Retrofit Hub (NRH), and Rachael Owens, co-director of NRH, share their insights from the International Retrofit Conference. As th

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

Albyn Housing Society chief executive Kirsty Mor­ri­son shares why there will always be a place for housing associations. Housing, for most of us, is one of the very few constants in our lives. Our home plays host to some of the happiest moments in our lives, provides us with fundamenta

To mark Trustee Week (Nov 6-10), Home in Scotland board member June Wylie explains what attracted her to a housing association board and why she would recommend it to others, regardless of what sector you have experience in. When I was retiring in 2021 after 40 years in the NHS, lots of people asked

Janet Haugh, chief executive of Right There, discusses the recent headlines about homelessness in Scotland. Homelessness has been a hot topic in the news in recent days with Edinburgh becoming the second local authority in Scotland to officially declare a housing emergency, while Scotland’s Ch

Professor Ken Gibb, director and principal investigator, and Professor Alex Marsh, co-investigator of CaCHE, reflect on the new Scottish rent control proposals. In September 2023, the Scottish Government launched a consultation engagement process concerned with the rented sector proposals within the

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

In a Scottish Housing News exclusive, Ben Glennon, associate architect at Aitken Turnbull discusses how architects can play a key role in lessening the hardships of living with dementia. The number of adults living with dementia and other cases of cognitive ageing worldwide is expected to increase f

Affordable, scalable retrofit can be achieved in a way that gives financial power to communities and transforms them for the better according to Rufus Grantham, co-founder at not-for-profit community interest corporation Living Places. Writing ahead of BE-ST Fest, a two-day industry summit taking pl