THE transformation of Glasgow’s communities in recent decades has been nothing short of remarkable. Not so long ago entire neighbourhoods were blighted by poor social housing, with the legacy of post-war planning policies impacting on the lives of generations of Glaswegians.
Now, those images of derelict homes still regularly used to illustrate poverty and despair are barely recognisable to young Glaswegians.
The transfer of housing stock away from council control in 2003 triggered the biggest physical overhaul this city has experienced in its recent history. But it also created new and expanded community-controlled housing associations which gave tenants a say in the decisions affecting their neighbourhoods.
Today, Glasgow is internationally regarded as an exemplar of how to do community regeneration right. Just 18 months ago we hosted a United Nations delegation which wanted to see how we provide affordable and healthy housing and empower communities in the process.
Glasgow City Council may no longer be a landlord but we are the Strategic Housing Authority. Just last week I was delighted to report five-year investment plans, with more than £469 million funding allocated to support 4400 new affordable homes. Around two-thirds of the homes built through our Affordable Housing Programme are for social rent.
However, it is not just about quantity. We have set the Glasgow Standard which aims to create attractive, high-quality, excellent places for people to live, help to address health issues and protect the environment. Social housing is leading the way in innovation, sustainability, and design.
Much of our community transformation is planned and delivered via Glasgow’s eight Transformational Regeneration Areas (TRA), a partnership of the council, Glasgow Housing Association and the Scottish Government. The Maryhill TRA includes the historic Maryhill
Locks on the Forth & Clyde Canal, known locally as the Botany and the Valley. The TRA’s aim is to transform the area by delivering a new sustainable, mixed-tenure community benefitting from links to the canal and River Kelvin.
Like all TRAs, Maryhill has a Local Delivery Group made up of residents, elected members, local housing associations and other partners to oversee the process and remain sensitive to the needs and desires of the community. When the TRA is complete there will be almost 300 units of new social housing with the potential for a further 70, by far the biggest sector and underlining the commitment to affordable homes leading Maryhill’s regeneration.
So far, five phases have progressed, delivering new social rented, self-build, low-cost home ownership and private sale homes. The sixth phase includes the Collina Street part of the master plan. A marketing exercise, extended due to the impact of Covid, is under way to find a partner to deliver the community’s aspirations.
In the past decade there has been consistent consultation and communication with the community about the plans and progress of the Maryhill TRA, generating clear expressions of support for a mixed community. This includes affordable housing on Collina Street, (with, it should be stated, conditions which will prevent them being sold as buy-to-let).
Collina Street can’t be seen in isolation. Old social housing is being replaced across the immediate neighbourhood and indeed increased throughout wider Maryhill. The clear desire of local residents to own their own homes in the Botany and Valley is also a major consideration. Furthermore, it is not the place of the council or its TRA partners to undo what the wider community has told us over several years.
Our recent successes in rebuilding communities stems in part from learning from historic failures. One only needs to look at the Gorbals and Laurieston, areas once synonymous with dereliction, abandonment and failure, to see
how community ownership and genuinely mixed communities can re-emerge and flourish. Glasgow is getting it right.
Communities like Maryhill are critical in taking that success forward. Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government and our partners are determined to support community aspirations to build those communities.
Glasgow City Councillor Kenny McLean is City Convenor for Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Realm
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