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Chief Executive Officer

About Southside Housing Association

Southside Housing Association is one of Scotland’s longest established housing associations and continues to retain the community based focus it began with.  It is also one of Scotland’s most diverse housing associations reflecting the people, neighbourhoods and various types of housing stock it works with.

The Association has approximately 2,500 houses including a portfolio of over 200 mid-market rent properties and has a healthy development programme to meet housing need within our communities.

A key development for the Association was in 2011 when we took the transfer, in three tranches, of former Glasgow Housing Association properties under Second Stage Transfer.

Our housing stock is extremely varied ranging from pre-1919 sandstone tenements to 1960s system built high-rise to modern new build developments.  We also serve a very diverse set of communities and neighbourhoods each with their own distinctive characteristics and needs including Scotland’s largest BME community.

Southside operates in two key neighbourhoods – Pollokshields and Cardonald but also has a significant interest in other neighbourhoods including, Strathbungo, Shawlands, Cathcart, Pollokshaws, Ibrox and Penilee.

Southside Housing Association was established in 1972 originally as Pollokshields Housing Association and has responded to housing need and grown steadily ever since.  The history of the Association includes the development of some of Scotland’s earliest special needs housing, the refurbishment of Victorian tenements across a number of locations on the south side of the city, the tenement regeneration and formation of a new streetscape at McCulloch Street in Pollokshields, major internal and external improvement works to over 200 properties at  Moss Heights Avenue in Cardonald as well as a programme of demolition and a provision of  over 150 new homes at St. Andrews Drive in Pollokshields.

The Association’s key aims are to develop excellent services, deliver warm affordable homes and be central to the neighbourhoods we operate in as a community anchor.

The Association is a major employer with over 100 staff employed in activities ranging from housing management, maintenance, development & investment, concierge and facilities management, housing support, advice services and finance and corporate.  We hold Investors in People Gold Standard accreditation and also Investors in Young People.

The Association has a turnover of £14m including the turnover of its subsidiary company SFARS Ltd.  The Association has a major borrowing facility in place with Handelsbanken to support its ambitious investment and development programme.

Our activities include the development of new tenures of shared ownership, shared equity and mid-market rent.  The Association is also a property manager/factor for almost 1000 homeowners via our wholly owned subsidiary SFARS.

Innovation has been central to the Association leading on solutions to housing challenges.  In the 1970s we were one of the first housing organisations to develop sheltered housing as an option.  In the 1980s we expanded into shared ownership and other specialist accommodation.  In the 1990s we established the Saffron Project, a unique response to youth homelessness in the BME community.  More recent innovations include installing new heating technologies, such as air source heat pumps, to contribute to the net zero targets and improve energy efficiency for our customers.  We are also pioneering energy efficiency solutions for Scotland’s sandstone tenements with the country’s first EnerPhit standard retro-fit.

The Association also has exciting neighbourhood renewal projects built around new community parks in Halfway and Queensland.  We have a diverse programme of support for local neighbourhoods based in a network of community bases.

Partnership working is central to the Association’s ethos.  We work closely with Scottish Government, Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Health & Social Care Partnership and a wide diversity of third sector organisations, including many neighbourhood groups.  Our shared objective is to improve the quality of life in our local neighbourhoods.

The Association is a community controlled Association.  Membership is through a lifetime share ownership and at our annual general meeting members elect the Management Committee.  The Management Committee is a group of 12 local people, many of whom are tenants, who seek to respond to the best of their ability to the needs and aspirations of our local communities.

The Housing Association is a Registered Scottish Charity and as such the Management Committee members are trustees of the charity which is regulated by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).  However, as a housing association we are a Registered Social Landlord and as such our principal regulator is The Scottish Housing Regulator.  In addition our services are also regulated by Financial Conduct Authority, the Care Inspectorate and the Property Management Regulatory regime.  We are also a public authority under the respective remits of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and the Scottish Information Commissioner.

Alongside the communities we serve, the Association faces challenges from the cost of living crisis and the longer term global challenge of meeting net zero emission obligations from a position of strength built on sound finances and strong governance.

Further information can be found on our website – www.southside-ha.org and in the documentation below

Documents

Business Plan 2021 - 2025

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Report and Financial Statements for year ended 31 March 2021

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Organisational Structure

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