Colin Jones (editor) - Health of Scottish Housing

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HEALTH OF SCOTTISH HOUSING

Health of Scottish Housing

Edited by

COLIN JONES
Heriot-Watt University, UK

PETER ROBSON
University o f Strathclyde, UK

First published 2001 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright Colin Jones and Peter Robson 2001

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2001086238

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-72528-7 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-19194-2 (ebk)

Contents

Colin Jones and Peter Robson

Colin Jones and Chris Leishman

Peter Robson

Jonathan Mitchell

Robina Goodlad

Raymond Young

Douglas Robertson

Paul Spicker

Duncan Maclennan

Robina Goodlad is Professor of Housing and Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Colin Jones is Professor of Estate Management at Heriot-Watt University.

Chris Leishman is a lecturer in estate management at Heriot-Watt University.

Duncan Maclennan is the Mactaggart Professor of Land Economics and Finance at the University of Glasgow.

Jonathan Mitchell is a QC specialising in housing.

Douglas Robertson is a senior lecturer in housing at the University of Stirling.

Peter Robson is Professor of Social and Welfare Law at the University of Strathclyde.

Paul Spicker is senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Dundee.

Raymond Young was formerly Director of Research at Scottish Homes and is now a housing consultant.

COLIN JONES AND PETER ROBSON

The initial inspiration for this book was the thirtieth anniversary of Shelter Scotland, the Scottish Campaign for the Homeless. Shelter Scotland was set up in 1968, one year after its counterpart, south of the border. It was established in the wake of Cathy Come Home, a television play about a homeless young woman's fight to keep her children, which shocked the nation. The book partly looks back and examines the changes to the major tenures, eviction policies and homelessness, but also looks forward to the potential of the Scottish Parliament to bring about change.

Thirty years after Cathy's story of life in the slums of the 1960s, according to the 1996 Scottish House Condition Survey (Scottish Homes, 1997a) a quarter of Scottish houses (a third of council housing) are affected by dampness or condensation. Many of the houses built to replace the 1960s slums are now slums themselves. The scale is such that today as many as 367,000 children and 119,000 pensioners in Scotland live in damp houses.

Scots are among the least healthy people in the European Union. Part of the reason can be traced to damp cold homes. There is also a link between poor housing and education: overcrowding affects space available for homework, homelessness can severely disrupt schooling, and damp housing can cause asthma leading to absences from school. These effects can endure for a lifetime. The health of Scotland's housing is intrinsically linked to personal well-being (see Scottish Office (1999a) for a more detailed view). This is recognised by the White Paper, Working Together for a Healthier Scotland which identifies good housing has having a key role in achieving health for all (Scottish Office, 1999b).

Shelter Scotland (1999) argues that there should be a new target standard set for Scottish housing which sets out minimum levels of energy efficiency and dampness to be achieved by all houses. To meet these standards and provide a decent home as a basic human need will require investment.

Some idea of the scale of the problem is given by the 1996 Scottish House Condition Survey which estimates the total repair and improvement bill for the nation's housing stock is at least 7.9 billion. Just over a quarter of this bill is for council housing. The biggest repair bill is faced by homes in owner occupation reflecting its status as the majority tenure. However, on a per unit basis private rented accommodation is in worst repair with the average property requiring 4,137 of repairs in 1996.

Homelessness is the most extreme form of housing need. Recorded homelessness since the nineties has been at record high. In Mitchell spells out the summary production line nature of the evictions process for council tenants despite the present laws giving apparent security of tenure.

With the creation of new forms of community ownership through the break up of local authority housing this could leave the position of the homeless even worse off. While currently local authorities have responsibilities to rehouse homeless people some may soon have no housing stock. This process has already begun. There is an immediate requirement for the Scottish Parliament to re-examine the homelessness legislation.

A fundamental underlying cause of the rise in homelessness is the imbalance between supply of and demand for housing, especially for single people. This problem derives from under-investment in social housing since the early 1980s, while the number of potential households has expanded and is expected to see a sharp rise over the next twenty years. Shucksmith et al (1996) argue that the consequences, poor access to affordable housing to rent in rural is particularly acute. There has been an over emphasis in policy on owner occupation in these areas.

A series of chapters assess the structural changes within and between tenures. Goodlad in Spicker discusses the long term decline of the private rented accommodation and asks the question whether we should expend any more effort to save certain sub-sectors of this tenure.

Scottish Homes was established on 1 April 1989. As a national housing agency for most of its life it has pursued policy goals determined by a Conservative government. From the election of Labour in the general election of 1997 it effectively trod water awaiting the arrival of the Scottish Parliament. Robertson in Maclennan also takes up the theme of strategic housing policy, focusing on the needs of the owner occupied sector.

One issue that the Parliament will have to face is the right to buy which is not considered in detail here. The affordable housing problem in rural areas has been exacerbated by the right to buy introduced in 1980. Jones and Murie (1999) show how the long term effects of sales in Glasgow have now begun to have significant effects on letting opportunities for the better housing stock. Goodlad proposes a review of the right to buy with regard to the discount offered, while Jones and Murie (1998) argue that in particular the level of discount for flats is difficult to justify. Indeed there is an argument for excluding multi-storey flats from the right to buy because of the subsequent management and maintenance problems they create both for purchasers and social landlords.

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