Transforming Scotland's Public-sector Housing through Community Ownership: The Reterritorialisation of Housing Governance?

Abstract

In recent decades, UK public-sector housing has increasingly been problematised, with government solutions focusing on modernising the sector by transferring ownership of the housing from the public to the voluntary sector through stock transfer. This promises to transform the organisation of social housing by devolving control from local government to housing organisations located within, and governed by, the communities in which they are based. The Scottish Executive's national housing policy of community ownership is the epitome of this governmental rationale par excellence. Drawing upon empirical research on the 2003 Glasgow housing stock transfer, this paper argues that, whilst community ownership is underpinned by governmental rationales that seek to establish community as the new territory of social housing governance, the realisation of these political ambitions has been marred by emergent central–local conflict. Paradoxically, the fragmentation of social housing through the break-up of municipal provision, co-exists with continued political centralisation within the state apparatus.

Thanks are owed to all participants in the research, in particular the key contacts within the local-level case studies, and also to delegates of the 2007 EURA Conference and John Flint who commented on an earlier version of this paper.

Notes

1. In the UK context, public housing refers to housing provided by the state or its agencies, normally a municipal local authority, whereas social housing is a broader term that also includes not-for-profit agencies outside the state apparatus.

2. A registered social landlord (RSL) refers to a social landlord that provides affordable rented housing on a not-for-profit basis and is registered with the housing regulator. These are quasi-private organisations situated within the voluntary sector. Although they are heavily funded and regulated by the state, they also draw on private resources to fund their activities.

3. Introduced in the 1980 Housing Act, the popular Right to Buy policy increased the rights of sitting tenants to buy their council house through generous discounts.

4. In 1999, the devolved Scottish Parliament was established at Edinburgh. It took over responsibility for matters of Scottish social policy. Fiscal and economic matters remain the responsibility of the UK government in Westminster (Kintrea, 2006).

5. The Scottish Executive refers to the first administration of the Scottish Parliament and which was in power during the period of this research. It was subsequently replaced in the autumn of 2007 and rebranded the Scottish Government.

6. The research is based on doctoral research funded by the ESRC.

7. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 strengthens homeless provisions by compelling RSLs to comply with requests from the local authority to rehouse homeless applicants, as well as affording homeless applicants greater rights of access to both interim and permanent accommodation.

8. The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 broadens the grounds for eviction within the social rented sector on the basis of anti-social behaviour. Importantly, front-line housing staff have a key role in enforcing this legislation.

9. As of March 2008 Communities Scotland was dissolved as an outside agency, its functions being incorporated within the Scottish government.