Insight

Jodie Fullerton, the service development officer (customers and communication) at West Lothian Council, shares what it was like to win at the CIH Scotland Housing Awards.

CaCHE director Professor Ken Gibb responds to the recent proposal to change the multipliers for higher band council tax properties to increase revenue for local government. A joint paper by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) was released yesterday as par

Ahead of Scottish Housing Day in September, Mhairi Harley, a recent graduate who joined SFHA from Yoker Housing Association, shares her views on housing as a career. Having recently graduated with a degree in Social and Public Policy, I am driven by a sense of social justice and a desire to mak

Alice Tooms-Moore discusses Shelter Scotland's research on the barriers faced by people from minoritised ethnic groups accessing a social home, highlighting the evidence given and research findings. Shelter Scotland has published details of a research project on the barriers faced by people from min

Marcus Di Rollo, lettings director at Gilson Gray, argues that the Scottish Government's rent cap policy will hinder the availability of new homes. In recent weeks, we’ve heard about a handful of city centre properties in Glasgow being turned into student accommodation – including the fo

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.

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.