A Short History of Social Housing in Glasgow

Something unique is going on here. Tiny Glasgow, with a population of less than 600.000 people (of which 37% live in social housing) has over 100 housing associations! Most of these are community-based and they are granted wide support among residents. In other Western European cities, housing associations are often larger and are generally not seen as partners of the community. What is going on here and what can we learn? Sit back and I’ll give you a wee class on the interesting history of Glasgow’s social housing.

Housing legislation in Western European cities emerged at the start of the 20^th century in order to tackle poor housing quality, overcrowding, and to improve the well-being of the poor in general. In many cities, housing became a local government responsibility. Encouraged by large population increases and large housing shortages, many city councils built huge quantities of social housing following the Second World War.

Glasgow is a post-industrial city. The Scottish Housing Act of 1919 entitled the Glasgow City Council to build public housing for its largely working-class population. The share of council housing increased rapidly, making up 67% of the city’s housing stock in the 1960s. Even today, the city has much higher shares of social housing than other cities throughout Britain.

After the Second World War, most newly built council estates were built on a small budget according to Modernist principles. Mass housing estates were built as satellite neighbourhoods at the edges of the city in the green, far away from the dirty city, but also far away from jobs, services, and facilities. A well-known example is the neighbourhood the Gorbals, which is located at the south side of the river Clyde. Due to its location close to industrial sites and the Clyde docks, the Gorbals was a home for many low-skilled workers during industrialisation. Huge housing shortages and poor living conditions after the Second World War encouraged the Glasgow City Council to build mass housing estates in the 1960s in a hitherto unprecedented scale. The estates were designed by Modernist architect Basil Spence.

For many families, moving into these new estates meant a huge improvement in their resident rights and living conditions. No longer could they be evicted unannounced, nor did the rents increase unexpectedly. Also, basic electricity was made available. However, the quality of many flats, especially the older ones, often remained quite poor. In the estates, toilets were sometimes still communal, located either outside or in the staircases. Buildings were poorly ventilated, causing damp and mould. The combination of poor estate quality, ongoing deindustrialisation, and a continual lack of access to jobs and services, these neighbourhoods became a huge civic problem. In the Gorbals, within two decades what was meant to be a socialist dream quickly turned into a – in the words of planners – ‘slum area’.

In the late 1970’s and the 1980’s, the socialist Glasgow City Council started to demolish the problematic estates in order to restructure deprived areas. However, the times had changed and so had the people. Regardless of the poor living conditions, for many people, the supposed slum estates had become their homes. As one housing official put it: “people felt like they were tearing down liveable places”. Therefore, resident groups mobilised themselves and created an alternative governance model: a community-based housing association (CBHA) that is managed by and for local residents. The organisations applied for government funds to restructure and to develop new houses. Since the 1970s when the first CBHA was formed, the Glasgow has transferred most of their housing stock to these organisations. As a result, Glasgow has about 100 housing associations and co-ops today!

Governance structures of CBHAs remain bottom-up. All boards that I came across have resident members and, in some associations, even the direction consists of trained former residents. Indeed, residents are quite positive about the management of their associations and the quality of their houses. Housing officials proudly mention that residents know them personally. Interestingly, the quality of social housing tenements is often better than that of owner-occupied houses in the same neighbourhood. This is because the differences in socio-economic status in mixed-income communities are not very great. Owners in mixed-income neighbourhoods are often subsidised. The rich live mostly segregated in the West End or suburban regions.

What is most intriguing is that the voice of locals has been so critical in developing and restructuring a wide range of Glaswegian neighbourhoods. The Gorbals provides a good example. Here, the New Gorbals Housing Association has been the major community player. In collaboration with the City Council and housing developers, they have demolished low-quality estates and built a new mixed-income community to house former Gorbals residents and to attract higher income groups from outside. The new developments follow the original grid of the 1960s mass estates. More houses were built than demolished. The ‘new’ Gorbals is a mix of new mixed-tenure and mixed-use developments, refurbished post-war low-rise, and a couple of old high-rise tower blocks.

What can we learn from Glasgow’s community-based model? For this, we should consider the drawbacks as well. What strikes me is that their very existence as ‘local includers’ creates a culture of social exclusion of non-community members. To apply for social housing, most CBHAs require that people have a bond with the area, be it through work, family, or residential history. There is selection at the gate. What does this mean for residential mobility of social housing renters? Furthermore, as associations are primarily concerned with the health of their community, they are often quite hard-lined regarding any antisocial behaviour. Where do these people go? The second downside is in my view a financial one. CBHAs are expensive because of the (re)development schemes and subsidies for owners. This is the Glasgow City Council’s major concern at the moment. CBHAs will most likely face severe cuts in the near future.

Nevertheless, in my view Glasgow’s community-based housing model is a powerful example of peoples’ power. Their popularity should be understood in the context of a working-class city. CBHAs ensure more satisfied residents in perhaps more socially sustainable communities. However, from the perspective of the city, it is important that CBHAs become more financially sustainable and inclusive in the future.