SHN Podcast co-host Jimmy Black shares how intelligent data presented in a user-friendly way can have benefits for housing associations and their board members.
Insight
The Inner House of the Court of Session has issued an important decision in the appeal of Glasgow City Council v X. It relates to the duty on local authorities to provide accommodation for homeless persons – that the duty to provide temporary accommodation is less onerous than the duty to prov
Jimmy Black runs his eye over the latest Solace Scotland report, which calls for urgent action to address a “housing emergency”.
Housing minister Paul McLennan discusses the importance of the Short Term Let Licensing scheme in Scotland, looking at its benefits to tourism and local economies, and addressing potential safety and housing availability risks. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending a weekend celebrating my
“The best way to encourage tenant participation is to be a terrible landlord”. It sounds like an essay topic for a housing student, but these were the words of David Bookbinder spoken on the Scottish Housing News Podcast. SHN editor Kieran Findlay and I recorded an episode on tenant part
Jimmy Black cycled to Stornoway to meet Calum (Barney) MacKay, chair of TPAS Scotland and long-standing tenant activist. Barney is a trade unionist, and that explains a lot. Trades unions teach their active members how to do many useful things, including basic skills, like how to run a meeting or th
Garrett Grainger, research associate at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), discusses the steps that can be taken to help end LGBT homelessness. Scotland has an ambitious plan to end homelessness. Local authorities in Scotland have a statutory duty to secure settled accomm
Social Housing Magazine has produced an interesting article on audit provision in Scotland. Using the 2021-22 audited financial statements (AFS) returns compared to the 2017-18 AFS returns from the Scottish Housing Regulator, it presents some interesting data and perhaps enables some thoughts on how
Prof Ken Gibb and Dr Vikki McCall discuss the importance of accounting for housing support services, highlighting the critical role they play in supporting independent living and integrating housing with health and social care while also emphasising the challenges in defining and tracking these serv
Jimmy Black wonders if tenants will end up paying for zero emissions heating systems, and notes that industry innovators like River Clyde Homes and Warmworks are finding ways to reduce that risk.
Duncan Smith, River Clyde Homes' energy & sustainbility manager, looks at the economic argument for decarbonising our buildings. Over the coming decade, we have to decarbonise heat and make our buildings as efficient as possible to meet our climate change objectives and have any chance of s
Caroline Maciver and Lynda Ross from Burness Paull round up the developers that have signed up for the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord and what the commitments entail. Eight large developers have signed letters to Scottish Ministers expressing their support for the Scottish Gover
Horizon Housing CEO Lorna Cameron calls on housing minister Paul McLennan to move accessible housing higher up the political agenda. The appointment of Paul McLennan as the first dedicated Housing Minister since 2016 brings fresh hope along with expectations that accessibility, one of the most urgen
Gareth Young, knowledge exchange and impact fellow at CaCHE’s, introduces the organisation's first Pride month campaign, as part of its ongoing equality, diversity and inclusion work. Over the course of the month, we will be highlighting research, good practice and people’s stories and e
As the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) launches its ‘Housing at Scotland’s Heart’ campaign at its Annual Conference today, CEO Sally Thomas outlines why Scotland’s housing associations are key to ending homelessness, tackling poverty and dealing w