Community Ownership in Glasgow: The Devolution of Ownership and Control, or a Centralizing Process?

Abstract

The largest housing stock transfer in Europe, the 2003 Glasgow transfer, promises to ‘empower’ tenants by devolving ownership and control from the state to local communities. This is to be delivered through a devolved structure in which day to day housing management is delegated to a citywide network of 60 Local Housing Organizations, governed at the neighbourhood level by committees of local residents. The receiving landlord, the Glasgow Housing Association, has further made commitments to disaggregate the organization via Second Stage Transfer in order to facilitate local community ownership, as well as management of the housing stock.

This paper argues that while the Glasgow transfer has enhanced local control in the decision-making process within the limits permitted by the transfer framework, it has nonetheless failed to deliver the levels of involvement aspired to by those actively engaged in the process. Displaying, at times, more of the semblance of a movement than an organization, the Glasgow Housing Association operates a classic centre-periphery divide. These tense central-local relations have contributed to the emergence of conflict which has further undermined negotiations surrounding the realization of full community ownership via Second Stage Transfer.

Key Words:

• Social rented housing
• stock transfer
• community ownership
• tenant empowerment
• second stage transfer
• glasgow

Acknowledgements

This paper reflects the interim findings of doctoral research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The research is indebted to the willingness and time offered by key actors involved in Glasgow's housing stock transfer. Thanks also to delegates who commented on initial versions of this paper at the European Urban Regeneration Association conference in Warsaw, May 2006; to the editor and two anonymous referees' from European Journal of Housing Policy; and finally to John Flint, Annette Hastings, Jenny Muir, Christian Nygaard, Louise Lawson and Zhan McIntyre.

Notes

Notes

1. Stock transfer involves the sale of housing out of the public sector (i.e. local authority or Scottish Homes) into the private/voluntary sector (i.e. housing association or housing co-operative). For a fuller discussion of the definitions and different types of stock transfer in Scotland and their differences with the rest of the UK, see Gibb (2003) or Taylor (2004).

2. The management agreement refers to the interim management agreement (IMA) signed by the LHOs/GHA immediately after the stock transfer from the City Council in 2003. Just after fieldwork ended, the IMA was slightly revised to take into account the implications of EU procurement legislation. It is now referred to as the Remodelled Management Agreement (RMA) within the GHA.