What is the Tourist tax and how could it provide our buses a new lifeline?Glasgow right now has the most expensive buses in the UK, wait times are awful, the network is patchy at best and many important night bus routes are currently not even running. For a major UK city the situation here is unacceptable. But let’s talk about Edinburgh for a second: Edinburgh is a city with a reputation for crowds. Tourists have been a boon in many ways, funneling money into local businesses. But tourism can also be a burden on housing and public services. To counterbalance this, Edinburgh has introduced a visitor levy (or “tourist tax”), which will come into effect this year. £5 million per year of the money raised in Edinburgh is going towards the development of almost 500 new council homes, thanks to the tireless campaigning of members of Living Rent. This story is a case of a council being pushed to use the tourist tax to improve the lives of people living in the city. Edinburgh is not the only city with booming tourism. Glasgow had an estimated 4.7 million overnight stays in 2024 fuelled by sports, nightlife and conferences and our council is looking to introduce a similar scheme by January 2027. The Glasgow levy is expected to bring in a sizable £16 million per year according to the Council’s proposal. We think this should be used for buses. Currently, buses in Glasgow are almost entirely run by private companies such as First Bus at extortionate prices with little oversight. A franchising scheme like Manchester or London’s would put control partially back into the hands of the council, the publicly owned SPT (Strathclyde Partnership for Transport) and ultimately the interests of the people of Glasgow rather than private companies’ profits. This would be slow to implement, and it might be expensive. More immediately and cheaply, the council could use money from the tourist tax to establish a municipal bus company. This could not risk competing directly with companies like First Bus on contested routes, but it could take over night bus routes and various other gaps in the commercially run services. Here’s the important part though: the council in Edinburgh didn’t just decide to devote their tourist levy money to tackling homelessness and high rents. We had to fight for it. In Glasgow, this £16 million could be spent on vanity projects and marketing, or on transport which works for tourists and residents. Right now, we have a chance to make sure at least some of the money gets used for good. Without your input, councillors will waste this opportunity to improve our public transport. We need your support to get through to them and see that this visitor levy money is used for good. We have arranged public meetings and invited councillors so that we can get our voices heard. Continue reading

Today, we are launching our manifesto for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections. We have set out our six key demands for the next government. The results of this election will determine how the government responds to the housing emergency, how it responds to the climate crisis and whether it choses to deliver a local taxation system that works for ordinary people. Continue reading

Elaine and her daughter had been living for three years in their council flat in Granton with a rat infestation underneath the floor of their home. Living in these conditions took a toll on their health and wellbeing, as well as their ability to have full use of their home. Despite this, the council refused to decant Elaine and her daughter in order to fix the problem.  Thanks to collective pressure from fellow Living Rent members, Elaine was able to negotiate a hotel stay for her and her daughter, and as of the other week, the works have finally been carried out! Now they are able to live in their home without the constant stench of rat urine. Collective action works. When we come together and organise we build power against injustice, and we win real, tangible change to our lives. Join Living Rent today - https://www.livingrent.org/join  

For three years, Wester Hailes member Iatimad and Asem family lived in an overcrowded, Council-subsidised temporary flat leased from a private landlord. From the day they moved in more than three years ago, the home had severe mould, a filthy carpet, and broken doors, walls, and toilet. Asem, who has asthma, suffered constant coughing due to the mould, and their children developed allergic skin reactions. The family reported the conditions many times, but after three visits the mould was only painted over and no real repairs were done. After joining Living Rent and organising collectively, the family were quickly offered a new home that meets their needs. Collective action works. Together we build power against injustice — and together, we win. Join Living Rent today - https://www.livingrent.org/join  

Last night, our Gorgie Dalry members took on multi-million pound property developers 'The Social Hub.'  At a public consultation held in Printmakers, Castlemills, members directly questioned and confronted the developers over how their proposed £200m purpose-built student accommodation and hotel development in Fountainbridge meets the needs of locals in dire need of social housing.    Developers were truly rattled and admitted to our members; This development will not be affordable for students This development is estimated to cost around £1400 per month for a single room It is not their responsibility to meet the needs of students, despite developing PBSA, but is the responsibility of Edinburgh council.   Well, they got one thing right, Edinburgh council must not allow any future PBSA in our city!   Have you lived in student accommodation in Edinburgh? Fill out our survey here and help build the case against these exclusionary and exploitative waste of city space.   Here's our member Jo delivering a righteous, angry speech in the face of the fancy folk turning our city in to a theme park. Read it below;   Continue reading

Aisha and Bader, Link Housing social tenants, had been living in a home that was mouldy, and spreading in their bathroom, bedroom, and hallways. Link contractors had previously recommended replacing the heaters, but the housing association had never followed through on this. Aisha spent 13 days in hospital for a blood clot, and her doctor confirmed that her housing conditions were worsening both her and her husband’s health! On top of this, Aisha was expecting their first child at the time, and the shower itself was inaccessible to Bader’s disability, because it was too small to fit a chair inside.  Our members, alongside Multi Cultural Family Base, got a meeting with Link Housing and demanded a new home for Aisha and Bader, and in the mean time full repairs to the home and dehumidifiers provided by Link.  Finally, the housing association met with us, confirmed the repairs, and in December, the family were able to sign a new lease for an accessible home! Now they can live in an accessible, damp free home with their new baby. 

Members Liz and her neighbour Hugh worked together to win repairs from Hugh’s landlord so they could both live decent lives in their stair.  In Hugh’s flat, there was a huge crack in his ceiling, which started to collapse in November 2024. The landlord put up scaffolding in his kitchen a month later, and then two months after that eventually repaired the roof. Even still, repairs to his ceiling weren’t carried out for over a year.  Even worse, the landlord didn’t carry out repairs to the pipes, so Liz’ flat was flooded from above three times. One time, raw sewage was flooding into Liz’ flat, and the emergency plumber couldn’t stop the flood because the stopcock was so rusty.  Hugh’s landlord, DJ Alexander, refused to put down carpets or insulation between their flats, and hadn’t fixed the loose floorboards. Music played quietly in Hugh’s living room, drawers opening and closing, or any footsteps could be heard clearly from Liz’ flat.  Liz and Hugh know they both deserve better. All these issues caused Liz so much stress, Liz suffered from a mini stroke in May this year. Alongside fellow Newington members, Hugh and Liz negotiated with DJ Alexander, and won carpets, repairs to the floorboard, preventative maintenance to the pipes, so everyone can rest easy that flooding won’t happen again, and both neighbours can continue living in peace. 

Around 40 members of Living Rent’s tenants’ and community union disrupted Glasgow City Council’s State of the City Economy conference to protest underinvestment in the city’s communities. This conference was attended by leaders of the tourism industry and politicians including Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken and First minister John Swinney.  This action was part of our union’s campaign to demand the council invest revenue from its 5% tourist tax into public services rather than ringfencing the funds for tourism and marketing. Glasgow’s visitor levy will be implemented from 2027 and is expected to raise over £16 million per year. The council intends to invest in initiatives that benefit the tourism industry such as the SEC, reimbursing AirBnB landlords and marketing the city. However, Living Rent members say money should be used to bring Strathclyde’s bus network back into public control and to establish a new publicly-owned bus company for the region. Our members have made several attempts to engage with councillors about the proposals. Susan Aitken’s constituents in our Shawlands branch have written to her, asking to meet with us. She has refused any meetings. Shawlands members have attended constituency surgeries trying to speak to her. She did not attend those surgeries. Our union requested representation on the city-wide visitor levy forum. We were blocked from participating. Having exhausted all means of trying to formally meet her, we staged a peaceful protest interrupting her opening address at the City Council’s State of the City Economy conference. Upon entering the conference, our members were met with a disproportionate response from GCC’s security, who were aggressive, even punching one of our members and had another in a headlock. Members who did manage to get through, peacefully marched through the hall to highlight the issues we face, including sky high rent and bills, expensive and unreliable buses and crumbling public services. They expected to have a wee jolly about how to make the city work for them, but we rained on their parade and demanded the city works for us. We are sick of GCC prioritising the interests of big business and profiteers instead of investing in the public services that Glasgow residents want and need. We’re happy that as result of our intervention, Susan Aitken has subsequently agreed to meet with us and we hope that she fulfils that promise. Our buses are operated by over 40 private operators, and we have the highest fares in the UK. Edinburgh’s publicly-owned Lothian buses charge £2.20 for an Adult Single compared to £3.10 here. In return for this premium, we receive unreliable services, limited routes, and double charges due to lack of integration between our transport services. Our solution is to bring the buses back into public ownership, and there is a groundswell of support for our demands. A recent SPT consultation found that 83% of constituents in the Strathclyde region support proposals for a municipal bus system. Indeed, the SNP pledged to transition Glasgow to a publicly owned bus system during the 2022 council elections. Susan Aitken has talked up the ‘positive change’ in the Glasgow pointing to the renovation of George Square; new hotels and luxury developments in the city centre, global brands and big banks moving into the city centre; and the council setting up a ‘destination marketing organisation’, whatever the purpose of this vague entity is. But our city’s challenges are not vague, they’re pretty straightforward. We have an astonishing lack of affordable housing, an inefficient and expensive public transport network, underfunded schools, and rubbish all over the streets among a litany of other issues we face day to day. Yet the council persistently fails to address any of these issues. Susan Aitken may deride us as part of the collective of these ‘individuals, often politically motivated, who publicly run Glasgow down’ but we know it is the GCC who are running Glasgow down by failing to invest in public services which badly need it. We badly need a functioning bus service. Half of our city doesn't own a car, and as bus users we all have experiences of being let down by the service here. Whether it’s having to wait 30 mins for the next bus; using multiple bus routes to get from one part of the city to another; paying for multiple tickets because the buses aren’t under the same company; or having to choose even more expensive means of travelling because of our unreliable buses. Worse is that the private bus companies continue to profit from this unreliable and inefficient service. The council needs to fund a public bus system which supports the working class people of this city to move around more easily and cheaply. On top of that, a publicly owned bus service would also bring ticket revenues back into the city and would likely discourage car usage to make the city less congested and greener. The private companies profiting from our commutes are to blame for this, and we urgently need the council to make a public bus system which supports working class people to get around. This way, we’d be safer, revenues would go back into the city, and there would even be less congestion.” The current bus network is a rip-off and the irony is, a publicly run service wouldn’t just benefit our communities, but it would actually better serve the tourists who the GCC are so eager to attract to our city.  Our members aren’t willing to see the revenue from the tourist tax be plundered by big business and marketing quangos. Let’s use the tourist tax to bring our publicly owned buses back.