Glasgow is in the midst of a housing emergency. This is not just the word of citizens and activists, but was openly declared by the City Council all the way back in November 2023.
In spite of this, however, little has been done to address the crisis, and council officers refuse to do even the bare minimum to protect renters and local communities from profiteering landlords and developers.
On Monday 27 January members and supporters of tenants’ union Living Rent rallied outside of Glasgow City Chambers, as part of an ongoing campaign to pressure the council to fully adopt planning standards used by all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
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The National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) commits authorities to ensure that 25 percent of new housing developments are rented at affordable rates.
Living Rent’s protest was planned to coincide with a meeting of the Housing Committee, where the proposals were due to be up for a vote.
Organisers stated that if the council had not spent over a year making excuses and delaying decisions, Glasgow would have had over 1000 new affordable rented units by now. Instead, proposals for luxury developments with rents typically over £1000 per month continue to be approved.
Ian, from the Shawlands-Langside branch of Living Rent, highlighted the example of 600 luxury flats approved for the site of the former Shawlands Arcade shopping centre. This redevelopment was waved through by the council with no input from the local community, despite the pressure of rising rents in the area.
Another Shawlands member, Claire, said she had been waiting more than five years on a housing association flat and has never been told how much longer she may have to wait. Currently there are 36,000 people waiting on social housing in Glasgow alone.
Members from Ibox and Dennistoun also spoke about the difficulty of finding suitable and affordable flats: facing illegal evictions and rent hikes, discrimination from landlords, having to pay six months rent up-front, dealing with damage, disrepair, mould, and mushrooms!
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Council workers and trade unionists also spoke about the behind-the-scenes graft that dominates how Glasgow is governed.
Elected councillors are constantly pressured by executives like Ben Wilson, on £100,000 salaries and in the pocket of firms like Hub West Scotland bidding for public sector contracts and political influence.
With rent in Glasgow increasing by on average 86 percent over ten years, the city is quickly becoming unaffordable. Local communities are at risk of deep social segregation, as expensive new flats force up costs and drive working-class residents into deprived areas.
Living Rent envisions the NPF4 reform as a measure to defend against this forced exodus, and a small step towards winning genuine social housing. Indeed, any reform which can improve the conditions of ordinary working people would be welcome.
But ultimately, a much bigger overhaul will be needed to combat the housing crisis, especially given that the Labour government in Westminster has no strategy whatsoever to deliver the 1.5 million homes they promised.
We need to expropriate the big landlords and developers, redistribute empty properties to those who need them, and plan the economy along socialist lines in order to build high-quality, affordable social housing for all.
Such a programme can only be won through class struggle, against the powerful landlord lobby, and the capitalist system which serves greed over need.
