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FIVE priorities for Glasgow’s local housing plan (LHP) have been identified by the city’s local authority.
The LHP assesses housing need and demand in Glasgow, provides direction for tackling housing issues, and informs future investment in housing and related services.
It has a stated vision of: ‘everyone in Glasgow will have access to an affordable, suitable, climate-friendly home, which promotes good health and wellbeing and connects to communities and the opportunities the city offers’.
The five priorities for the LHS are as follows:
- To deliver more homes and great places that reduce poverty and inequality and increase opportunity and prosperity for all;
- Improving the energy efficiency of Glasgow’s homes, reducing fuel poverty and supporting a Just Transition to Net Zero through decarbonising domestic heating and energy;
- Improving the condition of Glasgow’s homes and preserving Glasgow’s tenements and built heritage;
- Supporting people to live independently and well at home in the community; and
- Improving housing options, affordability and sustainability for tenants and owners, to prevent and reduce homelessness.
Glasgow City Council said that a balance has been struck in the draft LHP between meeting immediate challenges such as the cost of living crisis, affordable warmth, and the risk of homelessness, with longer-term aims such as retrofitting homes and building homes of the right size and type in the right place.
In addition, the LHP aims to address the grand challenges set out in the council’s strategic plan, with 23 commitments set out that will improve health and wellbeing, support inclusive, resilient and sustainable economic growth, become a net zero carbon city by 2030, and create safe, clean, and thriving neighbourhoods.
There will also be a series of key indicators in the plan, including a target of 13,000 new homes in the city by 2028, half of which are to be affordable homes.
After the formal consultation period and the collation of feedback, the draft LHS will be reviewed and appropriately amended before coming back to the council’s city administration committee for approval later this year.
Councillor Kenny McLean, convener for housing at Glasgow City Council, said, “More good housing in Glasgow will not only improve the lives of individuals, families and communities, but aids our health and wellbeing and contributes to our economic recovery and Net Zero targets. The local housing plan for Glasgow defines what the council and its partners would like to see happen in Glasgow’s housing sector in the short, medium and long-term. The draft plan outlines these aims, providing an integrated vision of how we want the city’s homes and communities to look and feel like.”
