Established | 2003 |
---|---|
Type | Housing Association |
Headquarters | Wheatley House, 25 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, G1 1HL |
Location |
|
Owner | Wheatley Group |
Website | wheatleyhomes-glasgow.com |
Formerly called | Glasgow Housing Association |
Wheatley Homes Glasgow (formerly Glasgow Housing Association or GHA) is the largest social landlord in Scotland with 40,000 homes across Glasgow. [1] Wheatley Homes Glasgow is a not-for-profit company created in 2003 by the then Scottish Executive for the purpose of owning and managing Glasgow's social housing stock.
Wheatley Homes Glasgow, then "GHA" took over ownership of Glasgow City Council’s housing stock after a ballot of tenants. [2]
Since initial stock transfer, Wheatley Homes Glasgow has invested £1.5 billion modernising tenants’ homes with new kitchens and bathrooms, Secured by Design doors and windows, new roofs, overcladding and new central heating. [3]
Wheatley Homes Glasgow has also built more than 2000 new affordable homes across the city. [4] [5] The demolition of high rise flats across the city has been a strategic priority, though replacement homes have not been forthcoming, leading to a reduction in the overall housing stock. [6] At Red Road, 1326 flats were demolished. [7] No direct replacement homes have been built on the site. 2280 flats ceased to exist after the demolition of the Sighthill tower blocks. Just 141 replacement homes have been built.
Wheatley Homes Glasgow is part of Wheatley Group - Scotland’s leading housing, care and property management group - which provides homes and services to over 200,000 people in 17 local authority areas across Central Scotland. [8]
The social landlord works with partners, including Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and NHS Scotland, to deliver projects to make communities cleaner, greener and safer. [9]
The Board oversees the delivery of GHA’s strategic priorities and the delivery of services to customers. It's made up of six tenants, an independent member, two Wheatley Group nominees and two Glasgow City Council elected members. [10]
Wheatley Homes Glasgow has a network of local offices and local tenant-led committees. It also has three Area Committees: North West, North East and South which give tenants and factored homeowners more local control. These committees are made up of tenants and other community representatives and make decisions for their areas. [11]
In 2010/2011, the company carried out a restructure, moving more staff to the frontline. More services were moved to local offices including welfare benefits, fuel advice and furnished lets. [12]
On 1 April 2022, GHA was renamed "Wheatley Homes Glasgow", following GHA and Cube Housing Association, both part of Wheatley Group, merging in 2021. [13]
Thousands of tenants were given a vote on whether they wanted their homes to transfer from Wheatley Homes Glasgow to community ownership under a process known as Second Stage Transfer.
Almost 19000 homes were transferred to community-based housing associations and co-operatives. [14] [15] [16]
In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost "social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help finance new homes and it cannot be used for personal benefit of directors or shareholders. Although independent, they are regulated by the state and commonly receive public funding. They are now the United Kingdom's major providers of new housing for rent, while many also run shared ownership schemes to help those who cannot afford to buy a home outright.
Castlemilk is a district of Glasgow, Scotland. It lies to the far south of the city centre, adjacent to the Croftfoot and Simshill residential areas within the city to the north-west, the town of Rutherglen - neighbourhoods of Spittal to the north-east and Fernhill to the east, Linn Park and its golf course to the west, and the separate village of Carmunnock further south across countryside.
Townhead is a district within the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of Glasgow's oldest areas, and contains two of its major surviving medieval landmarks – Glasgow Cathedral and the Provand's Lordship.
Toryglen is a district in southern Glasgow, Scotland, falling within the Langside ward under Glasgow City Council. It is approximately two miles south of the city centre, bounded to the west by Mount Florida, the north-west by Polmadie, to the north-east by the West Coast Main Line railway and the M74 motorway the south by King's Park, and immediately to the east by the town of Rutherglen.
A rent strike is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants come together and agree to refuse to pay their rent en masse until a specific list of demands is met by the landlord. This can be a useful tactic of final resort for use against intransigent landlords, but carries the risk of eviction and lowered credit scores in some cases.
The Right to Buy scheme is a policy in the United Kingdom, with the exception of Scotland since 1 August 2016 and Wales from 26 January 2019, which gives secure tenants of councils and some housing associations the legal right to buy, at a large discount, the council house they are living in. There is also a Right to Acquire for assured tenants of housing association dwellings built with public subsidy after 1997, at a smaller discount. By 1997, over 1,700,000 dwellings in the UK had been sold under the scheme since its introduction in 1980, with the scheme being cited as one of the major factors in the drastic reduction in the amount of social housing in the UK, which has fallen from nearly 6.5 million units in 1979 to roughly 2 million units in 2017, while also being credited as the main driver of the 15% rise in home ownership, which rose from 55% of householders in 1979 to a peak of 71% in 2003; this figure has declined in England since the late 2000s to 63% in 2017.
Cranhill is an inner city district and housing scheme in the north east of Glasgow, Scotland. Cranhill was developed from public funding in the early 1950s and was originally, chiefly composed of four-storey tenement blocks surrounding a patch of grassland, which became Cranhill Park. Later development saw the building of three tower blocks, surrounded by rows of terraced maisonettes. In more recent years, a number of semi-detached and detached homes have been built. The area also hosts some shops, two primary schools and nurseries, a community centre and the Cranhill water tower.
The Aylesbury Estate is a large housing estate located in Walworth, South East London.
Barlanark is a district in Glasgow. It is situated east of Budhill, Shettleston and Springboig, north west of Baillieston, west of Springhill and Swinton and south of Easthall, Easterhouse and Wellhouse.
Cowlairs is an area in the Scottish city of Glasgow, part of the wider Springburn district of the city. It is situated north of the River Clyde, between central Springburn to the east and Possilpark to the west.
Sandyhills is an area of the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and has fallen within the Shettleston ward of Glasgow City Council since 2007.
Sighthill is a neighbourhood in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and is part of the wider Springburn district in the north of the city. It is bordered to the north by Cowlairs, to the east by the Springburn Bypass road and the Royston neighbourhood, to the west by the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line and to the south by the Townhead interchange of the M8 Motorway.
Govanhill is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the River Clyde between Pollokshields, the Gorbals, Strathbungo, Crosshill, Polmadie and Queen's Park. Historically part of Renfrewshire, Govanhill had the status of a police burgh between 1877 and 1891 before becoming part of the City of Glasgow. Since 2007, it has fallen under the Southside Central ward of Glasgow City Council. A previous smaller ward named Govanhill had boundaries of Dixon Avenue and Dixon Road to the south, Victoria Road to the west, Butterbiggins Road to the north and Aikenhead Road to the east.
Oatlands is an area in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated south of the River Clyde, falls within the Southside Central ward under Glasgow City Council, and is part of the Gorbals historic area. Its boundaries are Hutchesontown and the Southern Necropolis cemetery to the west, Polmadie to the south, Shawfield to the east, and Glasgow Green public park to the north.
Hutchesontown is an inner-city area in Glasgow, Scotland. Mostly residential, it is situated directly south of the River Clyde and forms part of the wider historic Gorbals district, which is covered by the Southside Central ward under Glasgow City Council.
Anniesland Court is a 22-storey residential tower block in the Anniesland area of Glasgow, Scotland, designed by J Holmes & Partners and completed in 1968. It is the tallest listed building in Scotland, and is remarkably similar to Ernő Goldfinger's later and more famous Trellick Tower in London. It is the only tower block in Glasgow to have been granted a category A listing.
Duncan Alasdair Lunan, born October 1945, is a Scottish author with emphasis on astronomy, spaceflight and science fiction, undertaking a wide range of writing and speaking on those and other topics as a researcher, tutor, critic, editor, lecturer and broadcaster. He is known for his science writings as well as for his work on the Sighthill stone circle.
The Red Road Flats were a mid-twentieth-century high-rise housing complex located between the districts of Balornock and Barmulloch in the northeast of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate originally consisted of eight multi-storey blocks of steel frame construction. All were demolished by 2015. Two were "slabs", much wider in cross-section than they are deep. Six were "points", more of a traditional tower block shape. The slabs had 28 floors, the point blocks 31, and taken together, they were designed for a population of 4,700 people. The point blocks were among the tallest buildings in Glasgow at 89 metres (292 ft), second in overall height behind the former Bluevale and Whitevale Towers in Camlachie. The 30th floor of the point blocks were the highest inhabitable floor level of any building in Glasgow.
Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, has several distinct styles of residential buildings. Building styles reflect historical trends, such as rapid population growth in the 18th and 19th centuries, deindustrialisation and growing poverty in the late 20th century, and civic rebound in the 21st century.
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