Community ownership of social housing in Glasgow: building more sustainable, cohesive communities?

Reconfiguring the United Kingdom’s ‘problematic’ council housing through transforming its management and ownership, has emerged as a significant aspect of the policy agenda to deliver more sustainable, cohesive communities (Perry and Blackaby 2007; McIntyre and McKee, in Press). Empowering residents to take decisions about priorities for their local area promises both to challenge paternalistic and monolithic management practices, as well as forge relations between different citizens in a community through their active involvement in local governance structures. Drawing on the case study of community ownership of social housing in Glasgow, this paper explores the challenges to delivering this agenda following the city’s 2003 housing stock transfer. In particular, the assumption that such a ‘community’ exists and wants to be involved is explored, as well as the inherent tensions within such a model of community governance. The paper concludes that the mobilisation of ‘community’ may exacerbate divisions within the tenant group as opposed to transcending them