The Scottish executive will pay Glasgow an additional £415 million over ten years if tenants vote to transfer council housing stock to the independent Glasgow Housing Association.

The funds would be in addition to the £60 million a year Glasgow City Council expects to inherit from Scottish Homes when it takes over its role as the city’s strategic housing authority.  The move comes only one week after the Treasury announced that it would write off Glasgow’s £900 million housing debt only if the housing stock was transferred.

Campaign groups have criticised the executive, Westminster and Glasgow City Council for offering substantial financial gains to housing in the city but only if the housing stock is transferred.  A council evaluation this week warned that the Glasgow Housing Association’s plans to demolish 11,000 of the 81,000 houses would cause serious homelessness problems in the city.

Councillor Charles Gordon, leader of Glasgow City Council, said that the additional funds would be used for “re-provisioning”  and will be made available to the community housing associations to build 6,000 social housing homes.  This, along with 7,000 housing association homes planned to be built over the same period, would address the shortfall, Gordon claimed.