Higher Geography – Urban Unit
Recent Changes to Housing in Glasgow
Refurbishing tenements:
Since the 1980s many of Glasgow's old tenements have been refurbished into highly desirable accommodation. Facilities within them have been improved, such as central heating and bathrooms, and they have been made more energy efficient. Historic features such as cornicing, ceiling roses etc. are retained.
Glasgow Housing Association Regeneration Scheme (2003):
The largest such scheme in Europe involved the wholesale transfer of Glasgow's 80,000 plus council houses to the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA), a not-for-profit social landlord. This is poor housing stock, much of which failed to meet modern standards which combined with high levels of deprivation, creates major instability in the social and economic fabric of the city, and the GHA were tasked with modernising it.
The change in management will see change driven by communities at a local level. Decisions are made for the good of the residents first and foremost. What is unique about the GHA initiative is the scale of this transfer of assets from public to community ownership, and the size of the accompanying financial package the association is required to implement (£1.2 billion – all from private finance).
The scale of the project is staggering. By 2011, Glasgow Housing Association's (GHA) investment in refurbishing almost 70,000 homes in the city passed the £1bn mark. Another £250m was spent between 2011-13. To date, GHA has fitted 42,000 central heating systems and 41,000 new bathrooms, and has re-roofed 33,000 homes.
The project is nearly completed and has made the properties warmer, safer and drier. It has involved overcladding and re-roofing, and installing new central heating, kitchens, bathrooms, doors, windows and wiring. It has been completed to time and to budget.
The efficient way in which the programme has worked has meant it is not just homes that have been improved, he says. "The savings allowed us to plough another £150m into community facilities, environmental schemes and play areas across the city."
The works have had a clear improvement on tenants' lives, boosting energy efficiency and halving the level of fuel poverty since 2002. But perhaps almost as significant are the wider benefits such a huge investment programme has brought. Chief among these is the economic impact. Research by Heriot-Watt University earlier this year found that the refurbishment programme had so far generated an extra £923m for the UK economy and created or supported more than 9,000 jobs. More than two-thirds of those jobs have gone to Glasgow residents.
Commonwealth Games – Clyde Gateway development:
For the games a key aim was legacy. The athletes village, built in Dalmarnock, will be will be highly sustainable and energy efficient. Once the games are completed the apartments will be transformed into over 700 new homes including 400 affordable homes (300 social rent and 100 other low cost options).The housing will include homes ready for wheelchairs.
The Clyde Gateway has delivered a number of other transformational projects, including: the Eastgate office development, Clyde Gateway East Business Park, the Olympia Theatre project and the Red Tree Business Suites and a new Dalmarnock Station. There will also be a five-mile extension added to the M74 motorway, and the East End Regeneration Route will be constructed linking the M8 to the extended M74.
This level of activity is on a scale never seen in Scotland, with more than £1billion of investment guaranteed alone between 2008 and 2014.
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