Across our branches, one issues that keeps coming up is the poor standard of repairs across social and public housing. Tenants are made to live in house unfit for occupation: ongoing damp, black mould, leaks and recurring poor standards of repairs leave tenants facing enormous heating bills, health issues from the damp and mould as well as stress of having to live in such conditions. Local member defence teams support tenants to fight for individual repairs, however we know that broader structural changes are needed too. Continue reading

In March 2020, like so many people across the world, our lives were up-ended by the Covid-19 pandemic.As Scotland and the rest of the UK prepared for lockdown, we knew that tenants across Scotland would be the worst hit and that protection against evictions were direly needed. When staying at home was the best way to stop the spread of the virus, it was essential for homes to be secured. Continue reading

Across Scotland, but particularly in Edinburgh and the Highlands, more and more housing is being used as holiday accommodation for growing numbers of tourists. Due to the housing crisis, Living Rent has long-held that these properties should first and foremost be long-term affordable homes rather than holiday lets. Continue reading

In September 2019, Serco’s Home Office contract to house asylum seekers came to an end, in part as a result of the pressure exerted by public campaigning led by a coalition of refugee and asylum seeker advocacy groups, of which Living Rent was part. Mears Group secured the tender for the new contract and, despite mass public outrage at Serco’s handling of the situation, still failed to find a solution to house the 300 tenants under threat, enabling Serco to carry out evictions.  As Living Rent had established in 2018 when this issue first arose, members of Living Rent Glasgow were committed to resisting this policy of forced destitution, and we launched a summer offensive campaign of direct action to defend our neighbours and communities.This fight continues, led by the No Eviction network, see here.   Continue reading