Podcast available on iTunes, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Stitcher and Soundcloud.
In 1989, 30 years ago, Glasgow City Council suggested to a meeting of tenants at Whitlawburn housing estate in Cambuslang that they could take over ownership of their low-rise and high-rise tower blocks and become their own landlords.
After years of neglect, disrepair and a degrading social fabric the residents decided they could do a better job.
It was a risk but three decades on, the West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative has been used as an example of excellence for the co-op model in the Scottish Parliament.
Because of this, Democracy On Your Doorstep decided that South Lanarkshire was the right place to explore housing, how it affects councils and the communities they represent.
View towards Glasgow from the top of Benmore Tower, West Whitlawburn, South Lanarkshire.
Housing: how did we get here?
This year marks the centenary of the Addison Act, the legislation that started the UK’s tradition of state-owned housing.
Building homes for those returning from war began a major shift in the make-up of housing demographics.
Over the following decades social housing and owner occupiers dominated.
We spoke to Professor Ken Gibb, Director of the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), who explained the history of social housing and the impact different policies have had on the market.
He said: “In the interwar period you had the development of council housing in several waves as public finances were pushed into it. You have areas like Knightswood in Glasgow which is very high-quality housing.”
By 1971, home ownership overtook the combined rented sector and has since been the dominant tenure in England.
In Scotland, owner occupiers only amounted to 40% in 1980, but with the introduction of Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government Housing Act, the golden age of social housing came to an end.
Local councils across the UK sold off their stock at heavily discounted rates, Right-to-Buy proved popular, including in traditional Labour constituencies.
By 2000, 63% of housing stock in Scotland was owner occupied.
Recently, the private rented sector has seen consistent growth.
Between 2007 and 2017, the number of UK households in private rented accommodation went from 2.8 to 4.5million, a rise of 63%.
Professor Gibb said: “There are two fundamental issues in the housing sector: the ability to build enough new homes, and that the existing stock, which dominates the housing system and always will do, must be sustainable.
“All social housing had to be refurbished under a programme enacted by New Labour. Councils had to refurbish or transfer to someone who could.
“However, a lot of those investments happened 25 years ago now and a lot of that stock needs more asset management.”
Whitlawburn
Whitlawburn in 1983 and Whitlawburn now.
Paul Farrell is the director of West Whitlawburn Housing Co-op and has been since its inception, being the second member of staff hired by the tenants.
Before this he worked for Glasgow City Council and explained that in the 1980s, the council had no money to fix the problems in the tower blocks of Whitlawburn.
The council presented the possibility of transferring ownership to the tenants.
Paul Farrell, director of West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative.
“The tenants had the option of remaining with the council, being aware the council had no money for improvements, no local control, no local influence over what was happening, or look to an alternative.
“The housing co-operative model was a tested form in Glasgow in six peripheral estates.”
A group of tenants saw the opportunity and, after achieving a majority vote, the asset transfer of high-rise and low-rise blocks was completed – a total of 542 houses.
The first chair of the Co-op was Phil Welsh, a retired steel-worked and trade unionist.
Phil passed away in 2013. His son, Phil Jnr., now stays on the estate with his mum, his daughter and his granddaughter – four generations who feel that West Whitlawburn is home.
Phil Jnr. with his mum Sadie in their flat in Bute Tower.
“It’s like night and day. The towers were grey and depressing and now they’re vibrant.”
The £50million investment has transformed West Whitlawburn.
The change becomes even more stark when you see the neighbouring council estate of East Whitlawburn.
East Whitlawburn looking South East across South Lanarkshire.
The 360-property east side never left council control, being transferred from Glasgow to South Lanarkshire Council during local government re-organisation in 1996.
The estate has had investment over the years, but now it is being torn down to be replaced.
Connie Pearce Romaine, a former resident, took us to see the home she grew up in there.
Connie Pearce Romaine at East Whitlawburn.
“East Whitlawburn is very rundown, it’s pretty vacant now. I lived in four different houses in one street because my parents had problems with neighbours.
“I’ve been on the council house waiting list a number of times with no luck. Unfortunately, there is low stock and the stock that is available is in areas with very high turnover, undesirable areas because of crime rates and anti-social behaviour.
“There can be a stigma, people can be quite judgemental about the people who live in council estates, but I’ve found a lot of hardworking people.”
Council housing
There are 24,833 in South Lanarkshire, making it the fourth largest social landlord in the country.
Stephen Bark is the local democracy reporter for South Lanarkshire, based in the Hamilton Advertiser offices.
Stephen Bark, local democracy reporter for South Lanarkshire.
He describes the dual-nature of the authority – a place split between the rural and the urban.
“People who grow up in a big town like Hamilton have different experiences to those who grow up in a little village like Douglas Water. It makes for an eclectic mix, because where you come from reflects on you – it’s what you know.
“If you’re the person from Hamilton looking for a council house, it will be different going to another area. I won’t say it’s going to be easier, or more difficult, but it will be different.
“It would be really nice if we had a better public transport system. So you could say to someone ‘this house is twenty minutes outside where you lived before but there’s great transport links so you’ll still be able to get to your work.’
“We don’t always have that, not every town has a train station anymore.”
The management of South Lanarkshire’s housing stock is centralised, yet the needs and context of the varying estates differ.
South Lanarkshire Council Headquarters in Hamilton as seen from Chatelherault Country Park.
The length of housing waiting lists peaked in Scotland in 2008, and have declined since, standing at 157,806 in March 2018.
Several councils own no housing stock – Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scottish Borders.
Their stock has been transferred to housing associations or co-ops, but they still have statutory duties to provide housing to those who need it.
Homelessness
For the second year running, the number of homelessness applications has risen in Scotland.
There were 36,465 applications in 2018/19.
Aoife Deery, campaigns and policy officer for Shelter Scotland, said: “It’s chance not choice. There are so many ways in which people can suddenly become homeless. People say ‘it could never happen to me’, but it really can.”
The most common reason cited as the main reason for making a homelessness application was being ‘Asked to leave’ their previous accommodation, which accounted for 25% of applications. The second most common reason was ‘Dispute within the household / relationship breakdown: non-violent’ (18%), followed by ‘Dispute within the household: violent or abusive’ (13%).
There were 10,989 households in temporary accommodation as at 31 March 2019, an increase of 56 households (1%) since last year.
The number of pregnant women and children in temporary accommodation has also increased.
Housing Co-operatives
James Kelly is the convener of the cross party group for co-operatives and as well as being a joint Labour and Co-operative party MSP.
Interview with James Kelly MSP.
He grew up in Cambuslang, down the road from Whitlawburn, in Halfway when it was a new council development.
He remembers campaigning in Whitlawburn during the 1988 council elections.
The success of the Co-op has made it a useful example to help push the model up the political agenda.
“The fundamental difference between co-ops and other forms of social housing is that they are locally controlled and locally run.
“In West Whitlawburn there is a tenant management committee taking all the decisions, whereas in East Whitlawburn, housing policy is directed and controlled by South Lanarkshire Council on Almada Street in Hamilton.”
The Future
The Scottish Government has a target to deliver 50,000 affordable homes by 2021.
The regeneration of East Whitlawburn is a partnership between construction company CCG and South Lanarkshire Council.
Of the 330 homes to be delivered, around 60 will be added to West Whitlawburn Co-op’s stock, 100 will be for private sale and the rest with be council owned.
It is a mixed tenancy development exemplifying the nature of the market in Scotland.
We spoke to the people of South Lanarkshire on a sunny day in Chatelherault Country Park.
We asked them if they knew any councillors, if they knew what social housing is, if they think it is important and what kinds of issues affect housing.
Everyone we spoke to reflected on the same three problems that form the housing crisis:
unaffordable house prices, high private rent costs and long social housing waiting lists.
Music in the podcast was created by Tone and Groove.