Opinion

Finance director Nick Pollard provides an economic analysis of the Scottish Government's potential freeze on social housing rents from 2023-24. In 2020-21 the overall rent collected by the social housing sector was £1.39 billion. That doesn’t include last year’s increases.

In the monthly TECH column from the SFHA, Steph Elliot introduces the Healthier Homes initiative. The Healthier Homes initiative, supported by TECH, is a four-phased project to understand, test and evaluate if the combination of digital technologies, customer engagement, partnership working, an

To mark World Alzheimer’s Day, National Housing and Dementia Forum co-chair Ashley Campbell encourages organisations to help support people to live well with dementia. For most of us, our home is the place we feel safe, where we can relax, and enjoy time with family and friends. Our

As part of Scotland Excel’s ‘Supporting the journey to Net Zero’ campaign, Professor Sean Smith, chair of Future Construction and director of the Centre for Future Infrastructure at the University of Edinburgh, speaks of the importance of accelerating energy efficiency of buildings

Following her first three months as Homes for Scotland CEO, Jane Wood is astounded that there is so much that people don’t know or value about home building. Transitioning into a new sector is always challenging, not only in terms of needing to learn at pace to support your leadership thinking

Kirsty Wells from Housemark and WISH Scotland marks Scottish Housing Day by explaining why sustainability is so important in the housing sector. We’re now living in a state of emergency with climate change causing long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns across the globe. It’

David Robertson highlights the work Places for People Scotland is doing to address climate change and discusses the need for intergenerational cooperation on the climate emergency. Today marks the seventh Scottish Housing Day – with a focus on sustainable housing. The day is intended to raise

With over 65s set to account for a quarter of our population in 20 years, Steven Simpson from Cruden Homes believes we need to plan ahead to shape the future of housing to meet this growing mature market. In just 20 years from now, a quarter of the UK population will be aged 65 or over. That&rs

I imagine your readers will be aware of my concerns about the conflation of the terms ‘affordable’ and ‘social’ when used to describe housing. Transparency and accuracy in the use of words are essential if we hope to monitor and hold to account developers (including RSLs) and

David Kidd is an improvement lead with Homeless Network Scotland and a member of the Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness’ management team. Here he provides an update on the work being prioritised to ensure that people with diverse and direct experiences of homelessness have an equal decision

David Bookbinder considers the financial implications a proposed freeze or cap on social housing rents would have for a housing association's Net Zero aspirations. As always after populist announcements, it’s good to get real about the implications. A single year’s rent freeze next April

Stephen Llewellyn grew up in a multi. He felt warm, safe and is happy to say that he had a great childhood there. Yet he is leading the demolition of 48 high rise blocks in North Lanarkshire. Stephen acknowledges the contradiction. Speaking on the Scottish Housing News podcast, he spoke with some pr

Mark Cairney, Glasgow Homelessness Involvement & Feedback Team (GHIFT) member and the latest addition to the Leadership Team of the Glasgow Alliance to End Homelessness, reflects on the opportunity and creativity in the organisation's Frontline Forum. WHEN – Seeing the Workforce as People

As part of Scotland Excel’s ‘Supporting the journey to net zero’ campaign, Ian Heron - residential specification manager, Renewable Heating at Mitsubishi Electric - writes about the need for an urgent change in the way we heat our buildings. In June 2019, the UK became the first ma

Housing lawyer Derek Hogg discusses Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) matters and their impact on social housing. Scottish housing associations can hardly have failed to notice the increasing level of debate within the sector in recent times around the themes of sustainability and ESG