Scottish Tenants Organisation

Library


Points of Interest

Property magnate wins £1.1m from lawyers
link to Scotsman article
After a Dundee Council decision to demolish their houses, tenants and activistis surveyed the tenants and found strong opposition to the demolitions, something very different from what had been reported to the Council.

You can get copies of the two reports of the surveys here and on the library page.

Butterburn and Bucklemaker Tenants' Survey
Menzies Hill Tenants' Survey
Stirling Against Stock Transfer (SAST) produced an excellent flyer as par of its campaign. You can get a copy here.

This page contains links to documents that may be of interest or of use. If you have documents or links to contribute, please let us know.

Sections on this page
About the STO
OpposingDemolition - reports from Dundee
Opposing Stock Transfer - the view from Stirling
Opposing Stock Transfer - what couldn't be seen in Dundee
Making Council Housing Work
Guide to the Communities Scotland web site
The Housing Act (Scotland) 2001 and how to find legislation
Tenant Management report


About the STO
This is the statement from our About Us page for download as either a Word document or pdf file.

About the STO
Opposing Demolition - reports from Dundee
After a Dundee Council decision to demolish their houses, tenants and activists surveyed the tenants and found strong opposition to the demolitions, something very different from what had been reported to the Council.

More Time for Butterburn and Bucklemaker Courts
Views From the Menzies Hill Multies
Opposing Stock Transfer - the view from Stirling
Stirling Against Stock Transfer (SAST) produced an excellent flyer as part of its campaign. You can get a copy here.

SAST - Defend Council Housing
Opposing Stock Transfer - what couldn't be seen in Dundee
Dundee Council resisted releasing a consultant's study of the relative costs of retention versus stock transfer. The story is reported in this paper.

The Report They Didn't Want Us To See
Making Council Housing Work
An essay by STO executive member Sarah Glynn

Making Council Housing Work

Guide to the Communities Scotland web site
Communities Scotland's web site has a vast store of information, some of which is even useful but can be very difficult to find. The categories below suggest some useful possibilities, concentrating on tenant involvement. If you have a favourite resource on this web site please let us know about it.

Tenant Particpation Development Team
This is a subdivision of the Community Regenaration section of Communities Scotland and is advised by the Tenant Participation Advisory Group to which STO has for years sent a representative. It is also responsible for the National Tenant Engagement Network about which you can find information including minutes of regional meetings here
→ link to National Engagement Network main page.
Communities Scotland publishes guidance on tenant participation. Their main reference work can be downloaded from their web site through the link below.

Guide to successful tenant participation

Regulation and Inspection
This section of Communities Scotland carries out inspections of housing associations and local authority landlord operations.
It's main page in the Communities Scotland website can currently be found here
→ link to Regulation and Inspection main page.
Tenants have a role in Regulation and Inspection principally through the Tenant Regulation Advisory Group (TRAG) and that group's representation on two other advisory groups. You can read about this structure and the interrelationship of these groups and find more information through this link
→ link to Regulation and Inspection's Participation Structure.
Regulation and Inspection also has a page linking to their publications including inspection reports for the various housing associations and local authority landlords as well as their Performance Standards and other publications including various bits of guidance for landlords.
→ link to Regulation and Inspection's Publications.


The Housing Act (Scotland) 2001 and how to find legislation
The Housing (Scotland) Act of 2001 is the basis for the functioning of much of the housing system in Scotland. Like all UK legislation since 1988 it is available in its original form via the internet through what used to be called HMSO and is now the Office of Public Sector Information. The information is available in two forms: links to internet pages and pdf files that you can download. The main page for legislation is
→ link to UK legislation.
which includes UK, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland and in the case of Scottish Legislation there are pages for both Acts and Statutory Instruments. You will need to know the year of the legislation and may have quite a search if you don't know its title.

Housing (Scotland) Act 2001
→ link to Web version (HTML)
■  pdf
Legislation is accompanied by an Explanatory Note that you may find useful. These are available in the same two forms.

Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 Explanatory Note
→ link to Web version (HTML)
■  pdf

Tenant Management report
There is not a lot of information about Tenant Management Cooperatives in Scotland but a report from England has some interesting bits. You can download this from the web site of the National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations through the link below.

Tenants Managing: An Evaluation of Tenant Management Organisations in England
The views expressed in the documents available through this page are not necessarily endorsed by the Scottish Tenants Organisation.
©2007 Scottish Tenants Organisation