SCOTLAND: Tenants' role in housing board is
critical
The Scotsman
Posted on Fri, Jun. 10, 2005
SHEILA GILMORE
govandpubaffairs@scotsman.com
THIS month sees the establishment of the
board of a new housing association for Edinburgh. This is
part of a quiet revolution in public housing across Scotland
which will give tenants a central role in managing their
homes.
The City of Edinburgh Housing Association (CEHA) will take
over the management of 24,000 council houses. If tenants vote
for the move, in a ballot due to take place by spring next
year, it will instantly become one of Britain's ten largest
housing associations, responsible for one in eight homes in
the city. Unlike the Glasgow transfer, there are no plans to
split the housing stock among smaller organisations.
We will be a major player in the development and growth of
the city, with a multi-million pound budget for improvements
and for building thousands of new affordable homes, in
partnership with other housing associations across the city.
The association will become a major employer, and the
investment will provide a major boost to the construction
industry in the city.
The board of the new organisation is made up of 16 members
split between councillors such as myself and, representing
the interests of the wider community, tenants and independent
members.
Similar organisations are being set up in Renfrewshire,
Stirling, Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde - following those in
Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders.
These changes often draw accusations of a lack of public
accountability. "At least tenants could vote out the
councillors," is one argument you hear.
This is, of course, nonsense. When more than half of all
Scots lived in council housing this argument carried some
weight. Today only around one in eight Edinburgh householders
are council tenants, and the idea that they have the power to
change a council administration is fanciful.
By contrast, tenants are already shaping the priorities of
the City of Edinburgh Housing Association. Tenants will have
a critical part to play in selecting tenant and independent
members to the Board of CEHA. The new organisation, like
others of its kind, will be an Industrial and Provident
Society. Although the name sounds like a throwback to
Victorian times, the key thing is that is will be owned by
its members and all tenants will be entitled to join.
We finally have in Scotland the opportunity to leave behind
the paternalism sometimes associated with council housing and
create a new kind of relationship, one which is genuinely
participative and responsive to the aspirations of tenants.
• Sheila Gilmore is chairwoman of the City of Edinburgh
Housing Association.