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Glasgow Council sells land to housing associations to ensure development continues post lockdown
A number of council-owned sites across Glasgow are set to be sold to housing associations to maintain a pipeline of affordable housing projects after coronavirus lockdown measures are lifted.
Of the 10 sites being disposed of by the council, four are set to be sold to Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) – part of Wheatley Group – one to Thenue Housing, one to New Gorbals Housing Association, and one to charity LAR Housing Trust. Three more are to be confirmed.
The council, which transferred its housing stock to GHA in 2003, regularly sells land to housing associations as part of the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, managed by the council locally on behalf of the Scottish government.
The authority expects to receive £110.9m as part of the programme this year, but said “the ability to spend it has been reduced by the unprecedented suspension of construction work across Scotland due to the COVID-19 virus”.
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It added: “Analysts are predicting that the economic impact of the virus lockdown on both the construction and residential markets will be severe and it is therefore imperative that Glasgow City Council maintains a through put of development sites to help to maintain construction jobs in the city and to help people access affordable housing.”
According to Glasgow Council, the success of the future affordable housing programme within the city “will depend on land being sold to the development housing associations as quickly as possible”.
Unlike in England, the Scottish government has currently advised that work on all non-essential building sites, including housebuilding sites, should be halted.
Scottish housing minister Kevin Stewart recently said the government was “unlikely” to meet its target of delivering 50,000 new affordable homes by 2021, due to disruption caused by the pandemic.
