Author: Scottish Government and Cosla

Author: Bobby Macaulay and Chris Dalglish, Inherit

Full report here

Foreward by Ailsa Raeburn, Chair of Community Land Scotland

Community Land Scotland is pleased to publish ‘Community Landowners and the Climate Emergency’ in partnership with Community Energy Scotland, the Community Woodlands Association and the Woodland Crofts Partnership. We appreciate their significant contribution to steering the research to a successful conclusion. That collaborative approach, so characteristic of the community land sector as a whole, has served the study well. We are also grateful to the Scottish Government for providing funding to undertake the research. Finally, our thanks go to Inherit for producing such a comprehensive, accessible and analytically rigorous study.

We all know that the climate emergency presents the overarching existential threat to the future of our planet, requiring urgent action to ensure a just transition to a net zero carbon economy. We also know that community landowners have a long track-record of initiatives to address the climate emergency. Until now, however, our knowledge of the full range of such activities, and the community and wider public benefits they generate, has been patchy and incomplete.

Both this report and its accompanying case-studies make an important contribution towards filling that knowledge gap. Together they show how rural and urban community landowners are tackling the climate emergency proactively and imaginatively; generating renewable energy, caring for carbon sinks, reducing transport, food, domestic and business related carbon emissions, and helping their communities adapt to the effects of climate change. The research shows climate action from the ground up, helping to make the practical and behavioural changes that put communities on the path to a more sustainable future.

The report also shows the distinctive contribution that community landowners make to addressing the climate emergency by virtue of their role as land and asset Trusts. We know that many community organisations do great work in developing climate initiatives without owning assets. It’s clear that ‘one size’ does not fit all when it comes to tackling the climate emergency through community action. However, it’s equally clear that, as the report states, community ownership of land and other assets can be a significant factor in empowering people to tackle the climate emergency in sustainable ways.

Crucially, community landowners tend towards a holistic approach to climate action. They make connections across the range of their activities, stimulating multiple ‘soft’ benefits including environmental education, skills development and enhanced health and wellbeing. That’s in addition to the carbon reduction benefits associated with the range of initiatives highlighted in this report. All of which – as the research findings show – help facilitate a renewed sense of confidence and cohesion in our rural and urban communities.

These are formidable achievements. But there remains much more to be done to ensure that Scotland’s community landowners are empowered to play their full part in tackling the climate emergency in a socially just way. As the report notes, continuing to facilitate more community ownership of land and other assets is fundamental to that. So too is exploring the scope for wider collaborations and partnership working, together with ensuring that appropriate funding mechanisms for community climate action remain in place. This report confirms that community land and asset ownership has a vital role to play in tackling the climate emergency and building towards a more sustainable future. Let’s make sure that it continues to do so

Author: Caitlin Hutchison, The Herald

Meet the guerrilla gardeners improving their local area one flowerbed at a time.

They are a collection of individuals that share the belief that their town deserves to be looked after and has powerful heritage that should be celebrated.

The community gardeners – from Dalkieth, in Midlothian –  don’t have any qualms about rolling up their sleeves and all but banishing the unruly weeds, litter and vandalism that previously blighted the area.

They formed in 2019 after Dalkeith local Denise McKenzie began to see her beloved Dalkeith town centre look uncared for – blaming stretched local authority budgets and declining resources.

Since then, the small cluster of motivated, like-minded individuals has grown to a team of up to 30 guerrillas and a facebook group approaching 1,000 members.

It seems that once people got wind of the positive impact of their work, interest and offers of support started to snowball.

Now, the efforts of the group have been recognised with an award from the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society for their contribution to horticulture and gardening in Scotland.

But keen member Sharon Mackintosh explained that while the recognition is welcome, the group’s main focus is on making a difference to the landscape of Dalkeith.

“Whilst we don’t guerrilla garden for awards or recognition we are all extremely proud of the fact that our efforts in improving the appearance and care of Dalkeith Historic Town and Woodburn have been recognised”, she said.

“Dalkeith is a place we all care passionately and we all have a collective responsibility for the environment around us.

“We are thrilled to be making our town a beautiful place to live.”

During lockdown, the group was resigned to splitting up for solo litter-picks on their government-mandated daily physical exercise – but slowly began to meet up once again in pairs or smaller groups when it was permitted.

And the movement is continuing to grow, with people in the community coming together “of all ages and ability”.

“All we ask is that people bring along gardening gloves and lots of enthusiasm”, explained Sharon, who is out most weekends to lend a hand.

What the award-winning group has discovered is that by getting their neighbours involved, or asking local community groups or businesses for their support, it’s not only a great way to improve their surroundings – but also to meet new people and bridge divides within the community.

Working alongside fellow local groups, the Guerrilla Gardeners have several more ideas on how to brighten up Dalkeith – starting with a collection of murals popping up across town.

One of the displays, harking back to market days of old when cattle and other goods would be driven into the town, features six highland cows “keeking o’re a Dyke”, and was created by Dalkeith Arts vice chair Margaret Bititci.

“The process has been true community activism that has led to the formation of many other small groups across the local authority”, Sharon added.

“The difference in the town centre and in Woodburn is noticeable and has drawn hundreds of positive comments from members of the community.”

Author: Chris Smith

Community Pioneers Podcast

This podcast is all about the people working in and for their communities all over Scotland. Sharing stories, experiences and insights, you will hear authentic voices as they describe their journeys.

Following lots of chats and after a wide consultation with people in and around ‘’community”, I have decided to embark on a new podcast; Community Pioneers Podcast. The basic premise is long form interviews with interesting people in communities. The idea is together we can unpack ideas and experience in a format where we are not struggling to get a sound bite or a plug for an organisation. The conversation and the ideas are the thing. Importantly, I want to talk to people in the community for the wider community. I would like them to talk about their experience versus feeling they are an official representative.

In this agile new world where everything is virtual, the recording will be via Zoom and the audio distributed via Apple, Amazon Google and the usual podcast channel. At the moment, the podcast is all self funded and I want to steer clear of politics and constitutional issues. However, I am sure the topics of climate change, innovation, community engagement, and personal experience will feature as a wide range of guests appear. It will be a learning experience all around; part oral history and part knowledge transfer. Most of all, I hope it’s a good listen.

If you’d like to join the list of community pioneers contact Chris at chrisg_smith@hotmail.com

Author: Jamie Mann, The Ferret

Scotland’s public institutions sold off more than half a billion pounds worth of land and property between 2015 and 2019, with public assets being shed to make up for budget shortfalls.

The sold property, totalling at least £584,829,652, includes housing, schools, nurseries, hospitals, care homes and healthcare clinics. It also includes community centres, town halls, libraries, public toilets, swimming pools, farms, shop units and college and university campuses.

Scottish Community Alliance, a coalition of community networks, said budget cuts had led to councils “selling off the ‘family silver’ to make ends meet” and called for “radical reform of the way that councils are funded”.

Data obtained by The Ferret through freedom of information law shows that at least 2,982 properties were sold by Scotland’s local authorities, NHS boards, universities and colleges between 2015 and 2019. A further 151 properties were sold by the Ministry of Defence between 2009 and 2019.

The Ferret is making the entire data set available to its members.

In response to The Ferret’s investigation Scottish Labour’s Neil Findlay MSP called for an end to the “fire sale” of property, while public service policy researchers warned that “our public and civic space is being reshaped” and the sales will “have a devastating impact on public services and people’s wellbeing for years to come.”

Land and property was frequently sold to property developers, as well as to individuals and companies. Some public buildings were sold or given to charities, cooperatives, community groups and others.

Public bodies stressed that asset sales were a necessary way of balancing budgets and that property was often sold when it had become redundant. Sale proceeds were reinvested in new and improved facilities or other services to better serve the public, they said.

Thirty local authorities sold 2,663 land and property assets worth £320,693,750. North Lanarkshire and South Ayrshire councils did not provide any information about property sales while Aberdeenshire and Clackmannanshire withheld the sale prices and buyer details.

Among the assets sold off across Scotland were 39 leisure centres, seven swimming pools and four outdoor centres, although in 10 cases ownership was transferred to community groups, often for a symbolic price of £1.

One of the most high profile sales saw the popular Leith Waterworld sold to a property firm for £1.85m. Campaigners who made a rival bid to save the pool accused the council of “squandering” public assets.

Other facilities, like the Alva Pool in Clackmannanshire were transferred to the community, or, like the Wick Leisure Centre, moved to other venues. The former Montrose pool was transferred to the Montrose Playhouse Project, which turned the building into an arts centre and cinema.

Of the seventeen libraries sold by councils, only two  –  in Crieff, Perthshire and Langholm, Dumfriesshire  – were given to community groups. In the most high profile case, Edinburgh City Council sold part of its Central Library to property developer Jansons for £3.5m, with planning permission for a Virgin hotel later approved.

Locals argued that the hotel will ruin views and block light from the remainder of the library, and that Edinburgh was being swamped by new developments at the expense of public land. Meanwhile, Unesco warned that the hotel and other developments threaten the capital’s world heritage status.

The Scottish Library and Information Council claimed that library closures are “not always an indication of the public library service being diminished.” Chief executive Pamela Tulloch said several new and refurbished libraries had opened in recent years and that others had closed to cater to a demand for digital services.

Some 23 public toilets were also sold by councils between 2015 and 2019, according to the data. Unite the union has warned that toilet shortages disproportionately affect workers in driving jobs who rely on them. In 2019, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) found that one in five go outside less frequently due to toilet shortages. This rose to two in five among people with conditions requiring frequent toilet use.

RSPH chief executive, Christina Mariott, told The Ferret that when toilets were closed during Covid-19, “the very real risk to hygiene and sanitation that not having these facilities available became abundantly evident”. Now, she is concerned that even more have since been closed.

“We are concerned to hear reports that a third of Scotland’s remaining public toilets faces being closed or sold off as we know the impact will fall disproportionately on people with ill health or disability, the elderly, women, outdoor workers and the homeless”, she said. “These potential closures are a reminder of our desperate need for proper investment into our civic infrastructure to enable equitable access to life outside the home.”

Just months before the pandemic, Audit Scotland warned that most councils were increasingly relying on reserves to keep services running and balance budgets. The Ferret’s data shows that, between 2015 and 2019, Dundee City Council sold more than a sixth of its property assets. The Western Isles sold nearly the same proportion, while Stirling sold more than a tenth of its land and property.

Western Isles Council said that the majority of sold properties were “being returned to community use or housing”. Despite financial pressures, asset sales were “not driven by cashing in on local or national treasures” and sell offs were “likely to continue, and possibly increase, as flexible working opportunities become normalised”, said a spokesperson.

“It is important that we can continue to recycle these assets into appropriate uses that benefit the local communities and economy, rather than let them become liabilities and further financial burdens”, they added.

Stirling Council said that its property sales followed “a transparent process which involves all stakeholders in accordance with appropriate legislation and policies.” A spokesperson stressed that from 2015 to 2019, “the vast majority” of its sold assets were council houses sold under the Right to Buy scheme, which the Scottish Government ended in 2016.

Other sales ranged from “the transfer of land to facilitate the extensions of private gardens, to the sale of land to social landlords for housebuilding”, they added. “Stirling Council is not pursuing a policy of selling land or assets to plug funding gaps and all disposals covered by this period represent business as usual procedures.”

Dundee City Council did not respond to our request to comment.

A spokesperson for COSLA, which represents Scotland’s local authorities, said asset sales were “rightly and properly a matter for local determination, based on local need and circumstance. “Scotland’s councils have a responsibility to balance budgets and manage assets efficiently,” they added.

Colleges, universities and NHS boards

Some 166 land and property assets were sold by Scotland’s NHS boards, including 34 hospitals and 30 healthcare clinics. Other assets sold included care homes, dental surgeries, mental health clinics and medical staff accommodation. NHS Tayside sold 28 per cent of its property, Fife and Ayrshire and Arran sold nearly a quarter and four others sold a sixth or more.

In 2018, Audit Scotland said “urgent action” was needed to reverse the declining performance of the NHS, including the need for “longer term financial planning”. In February, it estimated that the pandemic would cost the NHS £1.67bn in 2020/21 alone.

NHS boards told The Ferret that any sold properties were either no longer suitable or required, with services transferred and sale proceeds reinvested in new or improved facilities. All sales had complied with national protocols directed by the Scottish Government and were externally audited to “ensure best value”, they said.

NHS Tayside argued that it “continues to have one of the biggest Health Board property footprints in Scotland” and had no plans to sell more property to balance its next budget.

Meanwhile Scottish universities sold 53 assets worth £83.76m, while colleges sold 115 assets totalling at least £26.27m. These included campuses, housing, land plots, office buildings and car parks. Scotland’s Rural College – which accounted for 88 college asset sales – and the University of the West of Scotland declined to reveal their sale prices and buyer information.

Universities Scotland, which represents Scotland’s higher education institutions, said its members have “an overwhelming capital maintenance backlog” of more than £850m. “The strategic review and sale of assets they no longer require is a drop in the ocean of that much bigger funding challenge,” said a spokesperson. “All proceeds are reinvested in addressing that challenge and universities’ wider teaching, learning and research needs.”

The colleges sector body, Colleges Scotland, argued that property sales were “a normal part of estates management” and “can be part of the overall strategy to allow new buildings and renovations to be affordable.” A spokesperson said: “Investment in modern facilities improves the learning experience for students, and the working environment for staff.”

Following The Ferret’s investigation, concerns have been raised about the extent of the sell off, with campaigners and the Labour MSP Neil Findlay calling for a new approach of how public land and property is managed.

“This is brilliant work by The Ferret showing land and public assets being sold on an unprecedented scale at the same time as we have a housing crisis across the country”, said Findlay. “There is little doubt that these sales are all tied up with cuts to budgets and public services with health boards, councils and others forced to sell land to plug funding gaps.

“The Scottish Government and public bodies must come together to stop this fire sale of assets and plan how we can use public buildings, land and community assets to regenerate communities, provide jobs and most importantly, housing for those in need.”

A spokesperson for the Public Matters group, which campaigns for public ownership of key services, said: “We welcome this research, as the data on sale of public property across all government departments can be hard to establish.

“Nonetheless it has been estimated that over 50 per cent of all public property has been sold or given away over the last 30 years. This troubling research shows that process is accelerating in Scotland.” They added: “Our public and civic space is being reshaped. We are being excluded from places we could once rightfully occupy. There should be far greater awareness of this.”

We are going to run out of assets to sell. We need radical reform of the way that councils are funded.

Scottish Community Alliance, a coalition of Scotland’s community networks, said that while sales proceeds can be used to “acquire new or refurbished public assets”, the data suggests “that councils are facing huge budget deficits and are selling off the ‘family silver’ to make ends meet and to balance the books.”

“You don’t have to be a financial genius to realise that this can’t be a long term solution”, said Angus Hardie, the alliance’s director. “We are going to run out of assets to sell. We need radical reform of the way that councils are funded. This means local tax reforms that empower councils rather than emasculate them as they have just been yet again with the instruction from the Scottish Government to freeze council tax.”

Hardie added: “In Nordic countries the municipalities raise the taxes themselves and pass a proportion up to the state government. They become democratically accountable for the tax and spend policies. Here it’s the other way round. Completely top down.”

UK Community Renewal Fund Prospectus Launch: The government has launched the prospectus for the £220 million UK Community Renewal Fund. This will support communities across the UK in 2021-22 to pilot programmes and new approaches as the government moves away from the EU Structural Funds model and towards the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.24 Funding will be allocated competitively. To ensure that funding reaches the places most in need, the government has identified 100 priority places based on an index of economic resilience to receive capacity funding to help them co-ordinate their applications.

UK Government has also announced that it will administer the Levelling Up Fund – open to local authorities – and the Community Ownership Fund – open to communities – with no Scottish Government input.

Author: NEF and Common Weal

A comprehensive toolkit of policies and actions providing a roadmap towards land reform in Scotland have been outlined in a new report published today by the New Economics Foundation and the Common Weal think tank.

‘Our Land’ provides an analysis of why concentrated land ownership is harming Scotland; sets out a comprehensive plan for proper reform; demonstrates that it is legal and possible within the powers Scotland already has and; sets out a vision for what a new Scottish landscape could look like.

Land reform in Scotland has been debated for centuries, punctuated with landmark works which have shown what is wrong with land ownership in Scotland, how it happened and what harm it has done to the country. Until now there has not been a comprehensive plan of how to challenge and change the situation.

The report makes a detailed economic case for the way that concentrated land ownership has held back Scotland and its communities; assesses the legality of land reform and; sets out a vision for what it could mean to Scotland if land reform was achieved. But at the heart of the report is a comprehensive toolkit of actions and policies which can be used to make this happen.

Land reform expert Andy Wightman MSP, an advisor on the report, said: “This report provides a commonsense approach to tackling land reform in Scotland. The land question is centuries old, yet Governments have repeatedly shied away from it.

“This report is a tipping point in the debate and provides solutions which are in the gift of the Scottish Parliament to implement. I wholeheartedly endorse this comprehensive, well-researched and sensible approach to deal with the inequality and unfairness of land ownership in Scotland.”

Leading land reform activist, journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, who contributed the foreword for the report, added: “All the recommendations in this landmark report are legal within the existing powers of the Scottish Parliament, in line with international law, practised elsewhere and ready to be enacted now in Scotland. All that’s missing is the political will to mobilise a cross-party alliance, tackle age-old fears of confronting Scotland’s big landowners and finally achieve the transformation dreamed about by generations of our forebears who finally settled for less or took their energy, culture, language and dreams elsewhere.

“Merely tweaking the developed world’s worst landownership system won’t save precious habitats, repopulate the glens or give Scots affordable leisure-time in their own country. This report is a policy roadmap showing how the land question can be tackled and what a normal Scotland might actually look like. I hope it puts land reform right back on the agenda for the Scottish Parliament and its parties.”

It is well known that Scotland has one of the most concentrated patterns of land ownership in the world but the report goes further in analysing some of the negative impacts that – and the land management practices it results in – has on Scotland, including:

• It enables various forms of ‘rent-seeking’ which reduces economic performance and increases economic inequality
• It reduces the capacity for business start-up and business expansion
• It inhibits rural community development and expansion
• It is a key driver of the rural housing crisis and leads to depopulation and the inability of business to source a workforce
• It leads to poor land management which reduces the carbon performance of Scotland’s land and harms biodiversity
• It creates significant power imbalance over influence on rural policy and so distorts Scotland’s democracy
• All of this suppresses Scotland’s human, environmental and economic potential

The report then sets out a package of measures, all within the powers of the Scottish Parliament and legal under international law, which can be used to transform the pattern of land ownership and management in Scotland. The recommendations include:

• Complete a comprehensive land registry to provide full transparency on who owns Scotland’s land
• Introduce some form of land taxation to incentivise better productive use of land
• Reform agricultural and business subsidies to emphasise the quality of land use
• Introduce a cap on the maximum amount of land one ‘beneficial owner’ can own
• Use Compulsory Sales Orders to encourage and where necessary require some landowners to sell land to the public. This can be required to be broken into small plot sizes to enable land access by small and medium-sized businesses, communities and small investors
• Use Compulsory Purchase Orders to buy land for public good purposes
• Extend the planning system to rural land to ensure a public-good criteria for land use
• Give communities a legal right to a say in the planning process for land in their vicinity
• Create a proper system of local democracy in Scotland to empower communities to shape land use
• Introduce a rural housebuilding strategy to tackle the rural housing crisis with communities empowered to address this directly through local democracy
• Reform the regulation of key practices in rural areas such as deer and grouse moor management to require more environmentally-sustainable practices
• Task the Scottish National Investment Bank to create a substantial land investment fund to support start-up and expanding businesses and community development
• Establish a National Land Agency to oversee all of the above

Duncan McCann from the New Economics Foundation said: “Significant land reform is vitally important if we want Scotland to be a more equal society as well as address the massive challenges of climate change and rural regeneration. The recommendations contained in this report, all of which can be implemented by the Scottish Government under the existing devolution arrangements, would go a long way towards creating the foundation we need to create the just and prosperous Scotland we all want to see.”

Author: SCCS

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland is very disappointed at the Scottish Government’s decision not to take on board the recommendations of Scottish Parliament Committees and stakeholders like ourselves for its Climate Change Plan update. The update published in December did not set out in enough detail how it will make the ambitious goal of a 75% cut in emissions by 2030 a reality and was also a missed opportunity to demonstrate world leadership on climate justice. 

Rather than publish a final Climate Change Plan update in light of the Parliament’s recommendations, the Government has instead promised to integrate these into the development of its policies and proposals. We believe it is a mistake to lose the focal point provided by a final, updated plan. SCCS and our members and supporters will be watching closely to see that the next Cabinet delivers on this commitment as the Government moves to implement its plan. This will be vital to ensure that Scotland plays its fair share in tackling climate change, reducing emissions and improving the health and job opportunities of everyone in Scotland. With Scotland hosting COP26 in November it is all the more important that our ambitious targets are backed up with the policies to deliver them.

Author: Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas, Executive Director of Scotland’s Finest Woods, offers her reflections on the Community Woods Award. The deadline for entries this year is 31st March 2021.

No-one needs reminding that our local woods have been a life-saver for many people during lockdown. They nourished our souls when we needed it most and provided beautiful places to exercise, and to breathe fresh air amid trees and birdsong.

So more than ever, in 2021, everyone involved with Scotland’s Finest Woods Awards is delighted to honour our very best community woods and what they do for our bodies and souls.

What always strikes me when looking at photographs of previous winners of the Community Woods Awards is the happiness etched onto everyone’s faces, young and old. Sometimes, those faces show concentration and focus instead, as volunteers work together to create a path, or a bench, to enhance people’s experience of their woodland.

It’s also striking that our winners have come from all across Scotland. Indeed, the 2019 winners were almost 500km apart, even by drawing a straight line between them!

Michaelswood Public Amenity in Aith, Shetland – the small community woodland group winner – is only slightly nearer to Gifford Community Woods in East Lothian (which took the large community woodland group award) than it is to the Arctic circle.

The judges who made the long, but rewarding trip to Aith said Michaelswood encapsulated how a small woodland could become a valuable asset for the wider community (young and more mature!), which is “both novel and fun as well as thoroughly engaging and educational”.

Michaelswood was also noteworthy, the judges said, because it “boldly and successfully demonstrates that, in a largely treeless landscape, woodland establishment is possible”.

Gifford, the judges said, was an exemplar for biodiversity-led woodland management by a community group, which had brought “a neglected mature woodland back into long term sustainable management” The approach was “biodiversity-led whilst also delivering a wide range of community benefits” and “underpinned by strong local community support, including a large group of volunteers”.

Doune Ponds, in Perthshire, the 2019 runner-up and 2017 winner of the Small Community Woods prize, was also praised for its volunteering effort – and especially its efforts at succession planning, with numerous new, young volunteers now regularly participating in work parties.

Other winners since 2015 have included two in Knoydart (Airor Common Grazings and Knoydart Community Forest), Abriachan Forest Trust in Inverness-shire and Evanton Community Wood, Ross-shire – plus Kilfinan, Argyll, K-Woodlands in East Kilbride and Castlemilk Park in Glasgow. Truly a broad church!

Will it be you in 2021?

The winners of both the large and small Community Woodland Group Awards each win £1000 while the overall winner takes home the spectacular Tim Stead Trophy to enjoy for a year. All entrants can also choose to highlight their environmental credentials by putting themselves forward for Finest Woods’ first Climate Change Champion award – in the year that global green summit COP26 comes to Glasgow.

I hope we will see some excellent entries, from all across Scotland, to help us recognise and honour the true wonder of our community woods – and everything they do for body and soul.

Full details of how to enter are here and if you have any questions, email admin@sfwa.co.uk

Author: Scottish Housing News

Paul Farrell, director of West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative (WWHC), is retiring from his role after 32 years in the post.

WWHC was established in March 1989 to control and manage the first Stock Transfer of Multi-Storey stock from a local authority. Mr Farrell was appointed as its first director in May that year and has led the community controlled organisation with its management committee and his staff ever since.

He graduated in Economics and Marketing from the University of Strathclyde and after completing a post graduate diploma in Management Studies joined Glasgow City Council. He worked in community development and community renewal roles in the north-west of Glasgow before being recruited by the WWHC management committee.

Mr Farrell’s drive and infectious enthusiasm to work closely with local people to improve the community have made him a very popular director.

During his time at the helm, and with full support from his management committee and staff team, WWHC achieved many significant ‘firsts’ in community housing:

• First Scottish winners of The Big Society Award, with representatives travelling to Downing Street to receive the accolade.
• First Lottery grant in Scotland for the Community Resource Centre.
• First fibre to the home network in the UK (Whitcomm)
• First to establish a not-for-profit tenant owned energy supply company.

Mr Farrelll was seconded in 2000 to the Glasgow Housing Association and spent three years heading up the GHA communications team that played a significant role in successfully delivering the historic transfer of Glasgow City Council’s housing stock.

His expertise and skill have been in demand by others and he has twice been acting director of East Kilbride and District Housing Association and was engaged in the same role by Faifley Housing Association.

Mr Farrell said: “It’s been a great honour and privilege to have led the WWHC staff team since the organisation’s inception in 1989. The WWHC Management Committee and staff have been wonderfully supportive of me over these many years. They are special people, who are the foundation and cornerstone of a tremendously successful organisation.

“We have achieved an enormous amount together, with many groundbreaking firsts. The Whitlawburn pioneers who led the stock transfer in 1989 were true visionaries and together we embarked on a remarkable journey. I am delighted to be leaving WWHC in such a tremendously strong position, as I hand over the baton to my successor.”

Mr Farrell, 61, who leaves at the start of March, added: “I have no regrets just a few disappointments with external agencies recently. For me the Scottish Government fornot actively promoting Housing Co-operatives, the Scottish Housing Regulator for a blinkered approach and often unconstructive behaviour and the local community health initiative for failing to do anything significant about health inequalities in Whitlawburn.

“I would like to send my very best wishes to my successor and the WWHC committee and staff team. I know they will admirably continue the successes, culture and identity of WWHC that will lead to further outstanding achievements in the years to come.”

Stephanie Marshall, WWHC’s depute director, is working as acting director until the position can be advertised.

Anne Anderson, WWHC chairperson, commented: “On behalf of our committee, staff, members and tenants, I want to thank Paul for his leadership, dedication and guidance over the last 32 years. Together we have changed West Whitlawburn for the better with Paul’s contributions driving the Co-operative forward and giving us a record of significant success and ground breaking achievements. He will be missed by everyone and we wish Paul the very best for the next chapter of his life.”