How Scottish Housing Coops Build Communities
A Scottish study, published in 2019, contains case studies demonstrating how housing co-ops in Glasgow and Edinburgh are delivering benefits for Scottish communities. In addition, it calls on the Scottish government to encourage more of them. The sector is still quite limited, with just 11 registered and several more unregistered housing coops in Scotland, compared with 685 across the UK.
By highlighting successful housing coops in Scotland and what they can achieve, this report is the first step in achieving the aim to put the sector firmly back on the policy map. The authors recommend an eight-point plan to deliver more housing coops in Scotland. This includes a three-year pilot programme to aid the development of housing coops in the social and private rental sectors, consultation of Scotland’s social tenants and work to lower the costs and increase the scale of community-led housing.
The report, launched by Co-operatives UK for Scotland’s Cross Party Group (CPG) on Co-ops, features case studies including West Whitlawburn Housing Co-op, Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op and Ploughshare Housing Co-op.
You can download the study here.