The trials of transfer

Some people still don’t accept that councils wasted billions of pounds building poor housing. They left generations to pay high fuel bills on low incomes, and said dampness in their homes was a ‘lifestyle’ problem. Then they raised their rents, because loan repayments ate up the money for management and repairs.

Glasgow Housing Association tenant Willie McLaughlin knows about high rents. He pays more than £320 a month for his house in Pollok, and council tax brings the total up to £440. The good news is that Willie is finally getting something in return. ‘At the moment I’m getting roof and render,’ he says, ‘and tenants here are getting central heating. There have been a few snags, but most people are happy. There’s a lot of work being done.’Willie owes his refurbished roof to chancellor Gordon Brown, who wrote off Glasgow’s housing debt of roughly £1 billion. But his generosity came at a price – the transfer of Glasgow’s 80,000 houses to Glasgow Housing Association.