Opinion

Putting people with lived experience of homelessness at the centre of the solution is key, writes Ewan Aitken as he blogs on Shelter Scotland’s Homelessness Conference. I was very pleased to be asked to chair the Shelter Scotland Homelessness Conference last week. It’s the kind of thing I really

Andrew Leslie Many housebuilders and property developers hold an unfortunate perception around the extension of Community Right-to-Buy, introduced by the Scottish Government last year.

Jacqueline Norwood Jacqueline Norwood is a housing consultant with more than 20 years of experience working in the Scottish housing sector. This year, she will chair HouseMark Scotland’s Tenancy Sustainability Specialist Club. She reflects on her own experiences and what these have taught her abou

Ashley Campbell By Ashley Campbell, policy and practice manager at CIH Scotland

Lisa Glass On Thursday 16th March, the Scottish Government released two sets of poverty statistics, on how many people live in poverty and on how many people live in ‘persistent poverty’, in other words, have been in poverty for three of the last four years.

Russell Young ‘Old habits die hard’ goes the expression and nowhere does this appear to be truer than in the area of estate inspections by social landlords. A recent HouseMark survey found that two thirds of social landlords still log their inspection reports manually on-site with pen and paper

The UK’s communities secretary Sajid Javid started the year with a visit to the Netherlands and Germany to look at how self- and custom-build homes can make a contribution to the enduring challenge of adequate housing delivery. This comes hot on the heels of the Scottish Government’s recent conf

With 14% of all households in Scotland now calling the private rented sector home compared with just 5% back in 1999, more people than ever are looking to the private rented sector for long-term housing solutions either through choice or necessity. This growth has led to a more diverse tenant base a

Housing minister Kevin Stewart Last week was full of important announcements and milestones for affordable housing in Scotland, writes housing minister Kevin Stewart.

Councils should be given powers to help them increase investment in good quality, affordable homes and lead the redevelopment of our towns and cities, writes Andy Wightman MSP.

Councillor Matt Kerr Councillor Matt Kerr believes that by working together we can challenge the stigma of poverty.

On a quiet Friday afternoon, the DWP laid draft regulations to end automatic entitlement to housing benefit for 18-21 year olds. Worryingly, these regulations are due to be implemented incredibly swiftly and will be in force from the beginning of April 2017, less than a month after the initial layin

Ewan Aitken Ewan Aitken of homelessness charity Cyrenians blogs ahead of Shelter Scotland’s Homelessness Conference 2017

A key parliamentary committee has re-launched an inquiry into Universal Credit after receiving disturbing evidence of the problems encountered by tenants from councils. Heather Spurr believes the UK government should use the opportunity to listen to the concerns of tenants and landlords who are deal

Shelter Scotland’s Nora Uhrig encourages tenants to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation into its proposed private rented sector dispute tribunal. At Shelter Scotland, we’re too used to hearing about disputes between tenants and private landlords or letting agents. When these rela