Glasgow City Council’s response to government discussion document on housing

No comment:-

“Glasgow’s housing strategy focuses on community-led improvement and
replacement of housing in the inner and outer city, and promotion of
owner occupation to increase quality and choice, create mixed
communities, and retain and attract population. The Council also
encourages the private rented sector, which is suited to the city’s
changing demography.”

“whereas the main issue in the East and North East is the supply of
affordable housing, (although increasingly an issue in Glasgow too),
the primary issue for Glasgow remains urban regeneration, and it is
identified as such in our Local Housing Strategy.”

“It is unlikely that Glasgow City Council would itself use this option
in the foreseeable future, since the city is well provided with a
range of social landlords capable of delivering and managing high
quality development. In addition, it would be expensive for the
Council to re-establish a housing management organization.”

1100_25_01_2008_2481_report_item-6.pdf

 

More on transport opportunities wasted

A comment on the ET’s website about the news that Stefan King’s G1 group’s proposal to open a nightclub in the old railway station in the Botanic Gardens is not popular with locals…

Posted by: John Hamilton, Pacific Quay on 5:51pm Fri 7 Sep 07

What other city would allow such a fantastic asset as an already built underground station and line serving it, running below prime real estate, to remain closed and mothballed? Just reopen the station/line SPT, get your b!oody fingers out and start providing a city as major as Glasgow with a proper, 21st Century rapid transit system! No more bul!****, no more Subway closing at 6pm on a Sunday etc. Start re-opening the many disuses underground lines in Glasgow and do what you should be doing for this city!! Other cities would love to have so many already built underground lines beneath them, the tragedy for Glasgow is this hopeless, corrupt, crony-ridden city council and useless SPT have NO vision for Scotland’s major city.

What other city would allow such a fantastic asset as an already built underground station and line serving it, running below prime real estate, to remain closed and mothballed?

Just reopen the station/line SPT, get your b!oody fingers out and start providing a city as major as Glasgow with a proper, 21st Century rapid transit system!

No more bul!****, no more Subway closing at 6pm on a Sunday etc. Start re-opening the many disuses underground lines in Glasgow and do what you should be doing for this city!!

Other cities would love to have so many already built underground lines beneath them, the tragedy for Glasgow is this hopeless, corrupt, crony-ridden city council and useless SPT have NO vision for Scotland’s major city.

The city has seen many recent debates around the future of public transport. What do you think?

 

Government refuses to acknowledge new report on GHA

On the 20th of August the SMGHH issued a report to the government about the GHA. The conclusions drawn are stark.

The organisation is yet to receive any reply.

[Scottish Monitoring Group on Housing and Homelessness Report into the GHA]

“Scottish Monitoring Group on Housing and Homelessness
c/o Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, 2025 Pollokshaws Road, Glasgow G43 1NE
www.monitoringscottishhousing.org.uk
Email: info@monitoringscottishhousing.org.uk

Nicola Sturgeon MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
Nicola.Sturgeon.msp@scottish.parliament.uk

August 2007

Dear Deputy First Minister,

The Scottish Monitoring Group on Housing and Homelessness has been in existence for four years and includes housing activists, lawyers and academics.

We write to you to request a meeting to discuss our urgent concerns regarding Glasgow Housing Association.

We have attached a supporting document, but for the purposes of brevity we wish to discuss:

• The appointment of a temporary team of housing professionals to the board of Glasgow Housing Association;

• Requiring Audit Scotland investigate the financial competency, efficiency, and procedures of Glasgow Housing Association;

• Democratising the board of Glasgow Housing Association;

• Empowering GHA’s Local Housing Organisations – both for its own sake and as a means of expediting second stage transfer;

• Adding Glasgow Housing Association to schedule 1, Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

• Reviewing the demolition, reprovisioning, and refurbishment program of Glasgow Housing Association.

Should you grant us a meeting our deputation would include:

1) Sam Harper OBE
Former Chairperson Glasgow Housing Association 2000-2004, Chairperson LHO and GHA tenant

2) Jim Harrison
Committee Member LHO and GHA tenant

3) Keith Baldassara
Committee Member LHO and GHA tenant

4) Mike Dailly
Principal Solicitor, Govan Law Centre

5) Jimmy Black
Former Communications Manager, Glasgow Housing Association, Scottish Federation Housing Associations, Shelter Scotland, Councillor in Dundee City Council

Yours sincerely,
Andrew Fraser,
Chair Scottish Monitoring Group Housing & Homelessness”

 

ET Website post – ‘proposed new fastlink bus system’

Posted by: Bill Forbes, Cambuslang on 5:38pm Wed 22 Aug 07

Ian, I think the big problems in Edinburgh will be traffic problems. If the bridge tolls are scrapped and more traffic enters the city, there will be massive problems for Edinburgh. I’d be willing to wager that a white knight will appear for them perhaps in the shape of a Stagecoach and the Council will sell their stake to Mr Soutar. He already has the Manchester and Sheffield trams, don’t you think he has even considered Edinburgh? But that is Edinburgh and this is Glasgow. Frank is right; there should be a new plan worth supporting. Have a look at my web site ([bold]www.subway2020.com[/bold] ) and see what you think. The SPT refused to consider it because it was “amateurish” and they were happy with spending £[bold]90,000[/bold] to get the proposal for the East End Circle – which (although only three months ago) has now been set aside while a new East – West subway extension is considered. But the main theme here is the SPT wasting money. They’ve spent [bold]£90K[/bold] on a Subway plan which has now been scrapped. They are spending more on another study (including a junket, oops, sorry, fact finding mission to Toulouse) for another scheme. They are spending [bold]£450,000[/bold] on a second stage “FastLink” study (that means they have already spent the money on the first stage) and they don’t even know if they’ll get approval. The funny thing is, I’ve had a look at the SPT’s budget for this year and there is no mention of this being planned. Similarly, there is no mention of a [bold]£250,000[/bold] first phase study into a Maglev train running between Glasgow and Edinburgh (stages 2 & 3 of the study will cost another [bold]£750,000[/bold] ). But the real damming thing is that the SPT 15 year transport plan (Regional Transport Strategy) published in March shows that the second and third phase of Fastlink is not to be ready until [bold]2016[/bold] . Where are they getting all the money? Well perhaps, because there are major delays to the Partick Station scheme they have a budget which is not going to be spent this year. So rather than give the money back, they find other things to spend it on. Just perhaps.

Ian,

I think the big problems in Edinburgh will be traffic problems. If the bridge tolls are scrapped and more traffic enters the city, there will be massive problems for Edinburgh. I’d be willing to wager that a white knight will appear for them perhaps in the shape of a Stagecoach and the Council will sell their stake to Mr Soutar. He already has the Manchester and Sheffield trams, don’t you think he has even considered Edinburgh?

But that is Edinburgh and this is Glasgow. Frank is right; there should be a new plan worth supporting. Have a look at my web site (www.subway2020.com ) and see what you think. The SPT refused to consider it because it was “amateurish” and they were happy with spending £90,000 to get the proposal for the East End Circle – which (although only three months ago) has now been set aside while a new East – West subway extension is considered.

But the main theme here is the SPT wasting money. They’ve spent £90K on a Subway plan which has now been scrapped. They are spending more on another study (including a junket, oops, sorry, fact finding mission to Toulouse) for another scheme. They are spending £450,000 on a second stage “FastLink” study (that means they have already spent the money on the first stage) and they don’t even know if they’ll get approval. The funny thing is, I’ve had a look at the SPT’s budget for this year and there is no mention of this being planned. Similarly, there is no mention of a £250,000 first phase study into a Maglev train running between Glasgow and Edinburgh (stages 2 & 3 of the study will cost another £750,000 ).

But the real damming thing is that the SPT 15 year transport plan (Regional Transport Strategy) published in March shows that the second and third phase of Fastlink is not to be ready until 2016 .

Where are they getting all the money? Well perhaps, because there are major delays to the Partick Station scheme they have a budget which is not going to be spent this year. So rather than give the money back, they find other things to spend it on.

Just perhaps.

 

Calls for Second Stage Tranfer from GCC, but residents must decide the future of city’s housing

This week the Evening Times carried a brief release from the City Council. Without comment the Evening Times noted:-

GLASGOW Housing Association has been accused of holding up the city’s regeneration.

The claim came from senior Labour politicians on Glasgow City Council as they called on the Scottish Executive to pay up to £500million to break the GHA up and replace it with dozens of smaller agencies.

But their stance has angered SNP MSP Alex Neil.
advertisement

He said: “Labour has a damn cheek. They set up the GHA against the wishes of the SNP and others who said a landlord with 70,000 tenants was not the way to regenerate housing.”

The cost of replacing the GHA with smaller landlords is expected to be around £500m and the Executive has given an assurance of a ministerial announcement on the future of housing in Glasgow.

The city’s criticism is triggered in part by the continuing dismay of councillors that some tenants have been decanted from their homes for the past five years.

The GHA was formed to take on the city’s council house stock.

A spokeswoman for the GHA said the transfer included a promise by council bosses to release land to the GHA for new housing projects. She added: “We have experienced delays in this.”

The GRN will be examining what solutions there are to the protracted problems that the GHA is inflicting on residents across the city. However uncritical publishing of council press releases, as the one above demonstrate that there is much to be done to inform the opinion makers of ’society’, represented by the media and the government, of what ordinary tenants and residents across Glasgow actually want. [The concept that there is increasing calls from local residents to push through second stage transfer is clearly not the case, for example] There clearly does need to be full and frank debate amongst local residents across the city about the way forward, and we in the GRN look forward to those discussions. It is our city, and it is our housing. We cannot allow the future of the common good assets of all of us, the property of the community, to be desposed of as the council sees fit, without any consultation. We have to talk amongst ourselves and decide our priorities. Only when people have a meaningful say in how our civic infrastructure is ran will we have a meaningful democracy. We will therefore be giving over a lot of space of the next few months to what should be done about the GHA, to generate debate and discussion amongst the wider residents association movement across the city, and it is likely to feature prominently at the first conference to establish a democratic federation of residents associations, which will be able to take these discussions forward by putting real pressure on the housing and governmental authorities to act in how we see fit to move our city and our communities forward.

If you have anything to say on this issues, so long as you respect the rights of others to have theirs, and aren’t inflamatory or discriminatory, we promise to publish you here on this site to develop this debate. Write to us at glasgowresidentsnetwork@gmail.com and we will give you a space to air your views!