There is much excellent financial and economic journalism but there are some fields of inquiry that often come up short. Analysis of that British obsession, the housing market, is, sadly, one high-profile casualty. A recent piece in the Telegraph was a case in point. The headline declared “UK house prices to crash as global asset…
The talks from ‘Shaping Futures: Housing Policies for the 21st Century’ seminar on 8 December 2015 with Duncan MacLennan and Michael Lennon are now available to view online. You can watch the lectures below and download the presentations. Shaping Future Housing Policy: A New Political Economy’ By Professor Duncan MacLennan, Policy Scotland, University of Glasgow…
For the last few months Policy Scotland has been involved in the evidencing process associated with the Commission on Local Tax reform. We have also contributed to the Scottish Property Tax Reform Network who have a briefing paper arguing the case for more effective property taxes at the heart of local tax reform. The CLTR is…
biketrouble/Flickr CC BY-NC-SA Kenneth Gibb, Policy Scotland, University of Glasgow When the council tax was first introduced in 1993, it was viewed as a politically clever fix after the catastrophe of the poll tax. It combined the palatable parts of a tax on property with personal discounts and limited exemptions for certain groups, such as students.…
URBAN LAND REFORM IN SCOTLAND – updated 03/11 – new Briefing Paper: response to Scottish Government Report to Sounding Board In May 2014, the Land Reform Review Group submitted its final report to the Scottish Government. The First Minister announced in November 2014 that the Government would consequently bring forward a Land Reform Bill, which…
By Professor Ken Gibb, University of Glasgow Earlier today I was part of a report launch jamboree in Edinburgh. This was the official presentation of the Commission on Housing and Wellbeing: A Blueprint for Scotland’s Future. This has been a two year programme of work supported by, but independent of, Shelter Scotland. I have been…
Yesterday the final report from the Commission on Housing and Wellbeing that Shelter Scotland set up back in 2013 was launched. Chaired by the former Auditor General, Robert Black the Commission was established to look at the ways in which housing can and does impact on the wider wellbeing of Scotland’s people – including their…
You can view footage below from the Policy Reunion Event held on 24 March 2015 on community planning partnerships. At this event Policy Scotland Director, Ken Gibb, chaired a panel focused on the emergence and evolution of Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs), a cornerstone of Public Service Reforms in Scotland. The panelists were Rory Mair, Chief…
Policy Scotland is proud to share ‘This Place Matters’ with you. This Place Matters is a collaborative learning project for communities and local authorities developed by the University of Glasgow and Architecture + Design Scotland. You can find out more about them by clicking here: http://www.thisplacematters.org.uk/
by Josef Konvitz Honorary Professor, University of Glasgow; Visiting Professor, Cities Group, Geography, King’s London; Former Head, Urban Affairs, Regulatory Policy Divisions, OECD, Paris The prospect of a recovery gives the false impression that we can go back to 2008 as if the last six years had not happened. But something dramatic has changed: the rate of…