We recently had a number of our Property Factoring staff attend a national conference “Tenements Today, Tenements Tomorrow”, hosted by The Scottish Civic Trust, in collaboration with Built Environment Forum Scotland and Under One Roof.
The purpose of the conference was to allow all those interested in the future of this uniquely Scottish form of home ownership, an opportunity to hear both from established tenement experts and speakers bringing new perspectives on the issue. This is an issue that is very important to us, with tenement properties accounting for an estimated 24% of Scotland’s housing stock.
There were a number of speakers at the event including Kevin Stewart MSP, Annie Flint (Under One Roof), Niall Murphy (Glasgow City Heritage Trust), Graham Simpson MSP, Euan Leitch (Built Environment Forum Scotland), Dr Frankie McCarthy (University of Glasgow School of Law) and Dr Conny Wollbrant (University of Stirling) amongst others.
The political perspective was provided by Kevin Stewart, MSP, Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning and Graham Simpson MSP, Chair of the Scottish Parliamentary Working Group on Tenement Maintenance which proposed the legislative reforms through their recent recommendations report.
The report covers a number of topics but has three main recommendations:
- Building Inspections
- Establishing compulsory Owners Associations
- Establishment of Building Reserve Funds
A copy of their report can be viewed using the following link: https://www.befs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Working-Group-on-Maintenance-of-Tenement-Scheme-Property-Final-Recommendations-Report.pdf
Annie Flint (Under One Roof), Niall Murphy (Glasgow City Heritage Trust), and Prof Douglas Robertson provided the historical housing and architectural background and review why there is a need for further changes in legislation to secure the future of this iconic style of property within Scotland.
Dr Conny Wollbrant, an Associate Professor in economics at the University of Stirling, spoke on the subject of “Applying Behavioural Science to improve tenement maintenance” providing information of new opportunities to engage homeowners in relation to the maintenance of their property.
The conference was well attended and discussed a number of important matters relating to the future of tenement property within Scotland, of which there are over 400,000 such properties. It was clear that there is far to go, however, real steps toward change are being completed with a view to legislation in the future.
This is a journey that we are excited not only to follow, but to be part of.
At Hacking and Paterson Management Services our teams are on hand to assist our customers in maintaining their property and we are happy to meet with our existing, or potential, customers to offer any advice on a proactive approach to building maintenance. Should this be of interest please do not hesitate to contact us here.
