Campaigners want Glasgow council to make developers build more affordable homes

Drew Sandelands
·3-min read
Glasgow city chambers
-Credit: (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)


Campaigners want Glasgow City Council to use its powers to force developers to build more affordable housing.

Scotland’s tenants’ union Living Rent is planning a demonstration in George Square tomorrow (Thursday), inviting the public to spin a big ‘housing wheel of misfortune’.

Members believe the council should implement a national planning framework [NPF4] policy which would require at least 25% of homes in new developments to be affordable.

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Bianca Lopez, chair of Living Rent Glasgow, said: “Glasgow City Council has the power to deliver much more affordable housing through adopting NPF4 and forcing developers to build the houses Glasgow needs.

“It is a political choice not to. Glasgow needs social housing not luxury flats.”

A council spokesman said almost half of homes built in the city in recent years have been affordable, higher than any other local authority in the country.

Between 2018 and 2023, around 4,400 new-build private sector homes were completed and just over 3,800 new-build affordable homes were delivered, the council added.

Living Rent’s ‘wheel of misfortune’ has been designed to draw attention to the housing crisis in the city. Glasgow City Council declared a housing emergency in November last year due to rising homelessness.

The union believes enforcing a minimum threshold of 25% affordable housing in all new housing developments has the potential to help alleviate the crisis.

The council says Glasgow’s existing city development plan did consider the need for affordable housing and found it was being met through existing methods, such as working with social landlords through the city’s affordable housing supply programme.

That position will be reviewed as part of the ongoing preparation of a new local development plan. The use of developer contributions is also being considered during the process.

Ms Lopez claimed the council has “failed to put its money where its mouth is” since declaring a housing emergency.

She added: “Decades of under investment in social housing, an out of control private sector and the prioritisation of luxury developments have resulted in rents being pushed up to astronomic levels across the city, trapping tenants in insecure, unsafe, expensive and undignified housing.

“The money exists to build the housing Glasgow needs. Daily we see eye watering amounts invested in enormous new luxury developments being thrown up across the city. They contribute nothing to our city except pushing up rents and gentrifying our neighbourhoods.”

The council spokesman said: “Almost half of all homes built in Glasgow in recent years — a trend that will continue for the foreseeable future — are affordable, well above the 25% target set in the NPF4 policy and higher than any other local authority in Scotland.

“Our affordable housing policy is guided by the need for such homes in the city, with targets based on Glasgow’s local development plan.”

Campaigners will be gathered outside the city chambers from 6.30pm on Thursday.

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