25,000 new homes planned for Glasgow

Glasgow City Council has committed to delivering 25,000 new homes by 2025 with £700M being invested over the next five years as part of the ‘People Make Glasgow Home’ strategy.

The scheme aims to meet the significant demand for new homes within the city, while also creating strong communities and attracting investment to support Glasgow’s growing economy.

Key areas of this strategy include releasing land for the development of affordable homes; helping first-time buyers to access mortgages; converting empty shops will be  into housing; releasing 20 sites for development by housing associations in the first year of the strategy; publishing a statement on student accommodation in Glasgow, and sites are to be developed for self- and custom-build houses.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “While there have been tremendous examples of new housing developments in Glasgow in recent years, such as the Athletes’ Village and Laurieston, the city needs to accelerate housebuilding to meet changing and growing demand.  The huge scope of housing activity that the council will be enabling, supporting and investing in over the next decade will truly transform Glasgow.

“We look forward to working with partners in both private and public sector housing to deliver 25,000 homes by 2025.  While the under-supply of housing is a national concern, we are determined to ensure Glasgow is at the forefront of tackling the issue, and will consider all feasible options for doing so.

“The building of these homes will bring tremendous economic and social benefits for the city, with the huge number of jobs and apprenticeships required to deliver new housing on such a scale.”

Bill Robertson, Chairman of Robertson Group welcomed the Council’s commitment saying the invest promised marked “an important milestone” for the regeneration of the city and the companies involved in the project. He said:

“Urban Union is a company created by Robertson Group and McTaggart Construction in 2011, targeting opportunity in regeneration throughout the country.  The company is growing quickly and is currently operating in Glasgow and Edinburgh on projects leading to the production of 1500 homes.”

Gary Climson, Managing Director of McTaggart Construction, said: “With confidence in the sector growing and an accelerating demand for affordable housing in Glasgow this announcement will provide a valuable boost to supply.

“We firmly believe this commitment by Glasgow City Council will further support the delivery of public sector housing in the city, driving the realisation of Glasgow’s newest city centre quarter and enabling us to continue our ambition to create quality homes and communities throughout Scotland.”

Working in partnership with the Wheatley Group and the Scottish government, Glasgow City Council help the Wheatley Group make good on its commitment to develop 1700 affordable new homes in the city between 2015 – 2022.

Gordon Sloan, chair of Glasgow Housing Association, which is part of the Wheatley Group, said: “One of our priorities is to help increase the number of affordable homes for people in communities across Glasgow.

“We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Government to bring forward plans for 1700 more homes in the city.”

Glasgow has yet to return to the levels of housebuilding seen before the financial crisis in 2008/09, with the result being the housing shortage currently being experienced. It is hoped that the People Make Glasgow Home’ strategy will address this issue, and stimulate the economy by creating jobs in the housebuilding industry.

The £700M invested in housing in Glasgow over the next five years will see £1.37Bn generated for the city’s economy in that period.

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