News

Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations (GWSF) director David Bookbinder argues that the conversation should be moved away from rent holidays and focussed instead on the loss of income members facing housing associations and co-operatives. Firstly let’s put the ridiculous id

Glasgow City Council has reached a deal to provide hotel accommodation for all of the city’s rough sleepers amid the coronavirus crisis.

Shelter Scotland has appointed its current deputy director Alison Watson as director. Ms Watson will take over the helm of the organisation in May.

As a result of the coronavirus crisis, East Lothian Housing Association (ELHA) and its in-house maintenance contractor R3 have both extended their opening hours. The two have extended hours so ELHA tenants can contact R3 about repairs and use their My Home accounts to chat online to ELHA s

The Scottish Government has issued more guidance on what construction work is considered to be ‘critical’ at the moment but a leading trade body has warned of a two-tiered system due to a disparity of advice across the UK. In recent days, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon advised that const

A coalition of charities has called on Mears, Serco and the Home Office requesting an end to evictions from asylum accommodation during the COVID-19 crisis. In order to protect everybody during this time, the #StopLockChangeEvictions coalition is seeking assurance that alongside no evictions, that t

Kelly Fraser provides advice for Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) wondering how to deal with governance issues, including the requirements to convene meetings, during the current coronavirus pandemic. There are various potential options in the prevailing circumstances - including virtual meetings,

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) has published the second in its series briefings to help housing associations and co-operatives through the coronavirus crisis. The briefing on health & safety covers the following topics:

The UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) has published a new briefing paper which assesses the implications of the long term trends identified in recent government statistics on Scottish local authority housing revenue account data. According to the paper, local authority housing fin

Given the current working conditions at housing associations across Scotland, Penny Norton reveals how online consultation can replace meetings usually carried out in person. This time two weeks ago a housing association might have been running or contributing to a consultation event for a proposed

Family-owned house-builder Mactaggart & Mickel has handed £1,500 to food banks who are helping people in need amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Homeless Network Scotland is partnering with Scottish Housing News to collect and share the experiences and challenges faced by its members, the wider homelessness sector and people confronted directly with homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis. In response to the emergency, Homeless Network Scotl

Craig Edward offers an alternative view to Grant Ager’s call for Scotland’s social landlords to consider a three-month rent holiday. I have to say I disagree with Grant. Tenants have varying circumstances and different methods of payment of rent. It is far too simplistic to suggest that

Emergency coronavirus legislation will include a six-month ban on evictions from social and private rented sector accommodation, the Scottish Government has announced.

Wheatley Group has announced that it will make empty homes available to local authorities as temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. It is one of a raft of measures aimed at tackling the impact of coronavirus on the 93,000 homes Wheatley owns and manages, the 7,000 people a yea