£415 million aid to housing stock transfer

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.