Thursday February 26th 2026
Glasgow skyline
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Sarah Hilley
Council housing should be returned to Glasgow to help solve the city’s homelessness problem, according to a number of councillors.
Currently more than 100,000 social homes in the city are provided by housing associations – and no council housing is available.
The end of council housing dates back to 2003 when Glasgow City Council transferred over the ownership of 80,000 homes to Glasgow Housing Association (GHA). But now local politicians from Your Party believe the reintroduction of homes managed by the council could help tackle the housing crisis.
Speaking at yesterday’s full council meeting, Councillor Dan Hutchison: “What we are proposing this year is the reintroduction of council housing in the city.
“As one of the only Scottish local authorities with no control over accommodation it is no wonder that we struggle to accommodate everyone.”
He added: “We all know the scale of hotel and B&B use in the city is extraordinary and can’t be a permanent solution. It isn’t to say that registered social landlords or homeless staff or empty homes teams don’t do the best job they can. But if we are really looking to fix a problem we need control of the housing stock.”
The councillors put forward the idea in their budget – calling for £150,000 to be spend to develop a route map to bring in council housing managed by the council.
Their budget report said: “Particular attention should be paid to how this could ease the housing and homelessness crisis in the city. Attention should also be paid to how CPO powers and on and office market purchasing for empty homes can be utilised for temporary homelessness accommodation as a first point of action on homelessness.”
The Your Party budget also put forward proposals to examine a four day working week and bringing more services in house rather than outsourcing to contractors.
The budget was rejected.
The council passed a budget from the SNP and Greens – bringing in a 5.9 per cent council tax rise, a cremation charge increase and a freeze on parking tariffs among other measures.
A budget presented from the Labour group was also knocked back.
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