Tackling the tenements

This summer, in one small corner of Glasgow, builders outnumber residents by about 10 to one. A block of tenements is currently undergoing massive improvement works, funded largely by the city council.

This is Govanhill - the area that Scotland’s housing and communities minister Alex Neil has now dubbed his ‘yardstick’ for any new legislation that deals with private landlords. In a pocket of privately-let properties on its southern edge, living conditions have left politicians reeling. Visits revealed one-bedroom flats occupied by families of up to 11 people, toilets jammed in next to kitchen cookers, gas fires spitting out yellow, poisonous flames and overcrowding so bad that children were using the common stairwell to relieve themselves.

Victory was claimed in 2008 when a landlord of one such flat was prosecuted by Glasgow Council and his estate seized. But others took his place.

In April, the new Housing (Scotland) Bill proposed tougher powers to tackle landlords who refuse to sign up to the national landlord registration scheme, as well as allowing local authorities to designate ‘housing renewal areas’ without ministerial assent. And while UK housing minister Grant Shapps recently retreated from plans to regulate England’s private rented sector, further measures are planned in Holyrood for a Private Sector Housing Bill after the Scottish Parliament’s summer recess. But as the scaffolding begins to come down from the first buildings to get a makeover, the question for Govanhill residents is whether this new raft of legislation will be enough to root out ‘slum’ conditions for good.

Registration

Around 13,000 people live in Govanhill, mainly in pre-1919 or interwar tenements, and estimates show between 20 to 30 per cent of the area’s homes are privately let, many of which are concentrated in the south of the area where the worst conditions have been found. According to council estimates, 561 of the private rented properties have unregistered private landlords - around a quarter of the total. Under the new bill, they could face a fine of up to £20,000 if caught - up from £5,000.

This threat is all very well, but enforcement of such fines remains a central issue. Brian Parr, group manager for private housing investment at Glasgow Council, says that in an area where more than 50 languages are spoken and trust in authority is low, it is a major challenge to gather the evidence needed to prosecute so-called slum landlords.

‘In Govanhill there are plenty of good landlords, but the problem is the ones who are exploiting people,’ Mr Parr says. ‘Many tenants don’t speak English or are scared of authority. They don’t want to report things.’

One of the council’s submissions to the Housing (Scotland) Bill involved changing the function of the national private sector housing panel, which was set up to protect private tenants. Currently tenants must lodge a complaint to the panel themselves, but Mr Parr suggests that public bodies, such as the council, police, fire or social services, should be able to submit complaints by proxy.

However, there was no sign in the bill that this change is going to be made. According to Mr Neil, a full review of the panel is needed - and that won’t happen until after the next Scottish elections in 2011. For the council, the challenge is that any new legislation must suit the needs of the most difficult areas.

For Professor Douglas Robertson of Stirling University, who chaired a private sector housing working group that fed into the new bill, the current legislation is about ‘closing loopholes’. He is concerned, however, that there is no financial strategy to back it up - and this is echoed on the ground. Shoma Mazumder, 39, has lived in the area for nine years, where she has raised her three young sons. She is now the only owner-occupier in her block of eight flats. ‘A bigger fine isn’t really going to be much of a deterrent,’ she says. ‘The way I see it, the legislation that we need is already there. There are already a lot of powers that can deal with these issues, but why aren’t they being used?’

A partial answer came for Professor Robertson, and potentially Ms Mazumder, last week, when the Scottish Government announced a funding package for Govanhill. A total of £1.8 million will be pumped into the area during the next two years. This includes £1.5 million for environmental work, and £300,000 to support local efforts on landlord enforcement.

This latter sum backs up Mr Neil’s earlier calls for a ‘task force’ to get to grips with the rogue landlord problem. In fact, such a force had already started work in Govanhill. A new multi-agency centre there called the Hub brings together staff from a whole range of agencies including the council and social landlords into one base, where daily meetings take place to tackle issues as they arise.

The government sees this new approach as a pilot for tackling rogue landlords across Scotland - and hopes that its support will help Hub staff root out the type of problems that Ms Mazumder, along with countless other Govanhill residents, have experienced.

Financial backing

The recent funding package, adds Mr Neil, is intended to complement the local council’s spend on Govanhill, not to boost it. Glasgow Council currently spends around £3 million a year on physical improvements to the area, from a total citywide private housing sector grant of just over £10 million. This covers repairs of up to £80,000 per flat. Most of the government grant will go instead to the local housing association, to help improve and maintain the environment around the flats.

The community-controlled Govanhill Housing Association currently owns and manages around 2,000 properties in the area. It improved the homes throughout the 1980s and 90s, before funding priorities shifted and it was forced to stop.

‘This funding announcement is very welcome,’ says Anne Lear, director of the association. ‘But we need sustained capital investment to finish the improvements we began 35 years ago.’

As part of their package, the housing association also received £500,000 to develop an acquisitions strategy. This supports the association’s ambition to work with Glasgow Council to buy up the worst flats from private landlords who either can’t or won’t pay for necessary repairs, and to then manage them - an approach that could sit alongside the council’s existing ability to enforce property maintenance under the 2006 Housing (Scotland) Act.

For Jim Harvey, director of the Glasgow and West Social Housing Forum, compulsory purchase powers like these are worth exploring. ‘They give some real leverage with landlords who won’t voluntarily bring their property up to a decent standard,’ he says.

Attracting residents

Behind the raft of legislation, and government funding announcements, is one more crucial part of the Govanhill jigsaw - the community itself.

Local people have been galvanizing since the first ‘slum landlord’ headlines hit two year’s ago. All the agencies involved - the council, government and voluntary sector - have recognised the strength of the community voice in the area, and its desire to see rogue landlords rooted out permanently. A group called GoCA, or Govanhill Community Action, has formed and has stated its desire to be at the heart of discussions over a new masterplan for the future of the area.

For residents like Ms Mazumder, legislation will only bear fruit if everyone in Govanhill - owners, tenants, and landlords - takes responsibility for keeping their area on track. As the builders retreat, and residents return, the real test is only just beginning.

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