The Economic Contribution of Glasgow Housing Association

Black, James and Roy, Graeme (2019) The Economic Contribution of Glasgow Housing Association. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

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Abstract

An effective and thriving housing infrastructure is vital for any modern, dynamic, successful city. Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) is the largest social landlord in Scotland with almost 40,000 homes throughout Glasgow. It is part of the Wheatley Group, a housing care and property management group responsible for providing homes and services to more than 200,000 people in 17 local authorities. Since it was formed in 2003, GHA has invested more than £1.5 billion in tenants’ homes. The investment has been used to improve more than 70,000 homes and to build more than 2,000 new properties. A further 2,500 homes are in the pipeline. GHA’s primary goal is to improve the quality of housing for its tenants and to contribute to the sustainability and development of local areas. But alongside being a positive social landlord, GHA’s investments and operations have made a significant contribution to the Glasgow and Scottish economy over its 15 years of existence. The aim of this report is to estimate this economic contribution. To do this, we undertake two assessments. Firstly, we look at all the economic activities of GHA for the most recent year a detailed breakdown of spending is available. This includes both capital investment programmes and GHA’s day-to-day operations (including maintenance and housing services). Secondly, we estimate the economic impact of GHA’s 15 year investment programme and the jobs supported from the building of new homes and the improvement and modernisation of many more. In both studies, we estimate not just the impact of the activities made by GHA directly but – through a detailed model of the Scottish economy – the wider spill-over effects that such activities support. We find that – * For 2016/17 GHA’s activities across both its day-to-day and capital spending programmes contributed £153 million in GDP to the Scottish economy helping to support 2,575 full-time equivalent jobs; and, * Over the 15 years of GHA’s capital expenditure programme – from its inception in 2003/04 to the most recent year 2017/18 of planned activities – around £2 billion will have been added to Scotland’s GDP helping to support additional 36,500 years of full-time equivalent employment in Scotland, or an average of 2,425 full-time equivalent jobs per year.

ORCID iDs

Black, James ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7796-0910 and Roy, Graeme;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)