Dismantle GHA

The wrangling over the GHA's repair contract is but another chapter in the life of the UK's most dysfunctional social landlord.

I can give you another one. The Scottish Government has rightly put £35m into the Mortgage to Rent Scheme so that homeowners facing homelessness can become a secure tenant with a housing association. Yet the GHA won't participate in this scheme. It uses obfuscation to explain why it can't participate, why it cannot proceed to second stage transfer, why it cannot build the number of new homes it said it would.

Never-ending excuses from an organisation with never-ending public subsidy. These failures prejudice ordinary citizens. We have a client in Govan who may become homeless because other housing associations are unable to purchase her home due to GHA communal repair issues - but if the GHA worked with the Scottish Government's Mortgage to Rent Scheme they could become her landlord.

It's heartening to see the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council now at one on the need to dismantle the GHA. However, calls for the Housing Regulator to investigate the GHA are misplaced. Regulator civil servants have been complicit in the cover up of GHA failures and bad practice. If the Scottish Government does not take urgent steps now I believe the GHA could become Scotland's mini-Enron.

Those steps must surely include the appointment of an independent inspection team, including forensic accountants and well respected housing association directors. The task would be to examine the GHA's management failures, identify financial waste, and report on a strategy to dismantle the GHA and deliver on community ownership. The Scottish Ministers have power under section 69 of the 2001 Housing (Scotland) Act to do this. And after any independent inspection they could appoint a manager to deliver on the agreed strategy.

Glasgow cannot afford to get this wrong.

More homes for Scotland

Tough economic times presents a golden opportunity to build more houses for affordable rent in Scotland. While there may be political argument over where the money will come from, it strikes me there is an immediate source in Glasgow.

The Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) made a profit of more than £50m last year and is still receiving Scottish Government grants of around £50m per annum. In these difficult economic times Communities Minister Alex Neil could consider redirecting some of these taxpayer funds into house building for social rent in Glasgow.

It would provide a much needed fiscal stimulus to the west coast of Scotland, and help address the rising demand for good-quality, affordable social housing.

Before anyone says it's not as simple as that, the Communities Minister could use his powers under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to take over the GHA's board. Tough times need tough solutions. Statutory appointees could direct the GHA to use its wealth and borrowing powers to kick off the largest social house-building programme Scotland has seen in years. It's a matter of will.

And now that the Council of Mortgage Lenders supports a pre-action protocol in Scottish mortgage repossession cases, will the Scottish Government maintain that protocols as set out in England are 'rubbish', the precise words of Nicola Sturgeon MSP?

What law centres and many others have been calling for is a Scottish protocol that ensures repossession is a genuine last resort and, if not, the right for the court to dismiss non-compliant actions. Instead of arguing what England has or has not, the Scottish Parliament has the power to introduce its own mechanism that could be life-changing for many hard-pressed households up and down the country.

Again, it's all about the will to tackle weaknesses in the system and things that are grossly unfair, such as the fact poor people facing repossession in Scotland might have to pay not only the bank's legal expenses for needless court actions but also their own Legal Aid bill. That is just plain wrong, but because the Scottish Government takes this as a criticism of itself - which it is not - it has pulled up the drawbridge on all of these important issues and is refusing to listen.

Why can't we have a consensus for the good of the nation?