GoWell is a collaborative partnership between the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, the University of Glasgow and the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, sponsored by Glasgow Housing Association, the Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. Glasgow Community Health and Well-being Research and Learning Programme: Investigating the Processes and Impacts of Neighbourhood Change

GoWell is a collaborative partnership between the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, the University of Glasgow and the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, sponsored by Glasgow Housing Association, the Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. High Rise Stories

Different Stories to Tell What data we have… Discussions with community groups Focus groups and conversations with residents Tenant Association (anti-demolition) views Survey

Policy: Major Transformational Regeneration Policy aim is to create sustainable, mixed tenure communities This usually involves the demolition of high rise flats and replacement with low rise flats and houses

What is it like to live in a high rise flat? How do we know? Factors that affect this include – length of residence, attachment to community, type of area, whether you have friends/family, proximity to other things eg shops, school The actual flat itself is only part of the story.

Demolition

Some welcome demolition (i) “My children still share a bedroom…once you’re in these flats you can’t get out. It’s only because this clearance is happening that we’re finally moving on…I could never let the kids out when they were younger because I couldn’t see from the park to check on them” (Red Road resident) “Wind howling through your house, your window sills are soaking, your doors don’t fit right… if you’ve got a plumbing problem in a flat, three or four houses can have the same problem before they find it” (Red Road resident)

Some welcome demolition (ii) “There’s not a thing here for the kids to do. It’s full of drug addicts, all the young’uns and it’s getting to the stage where people won’t go out at night because they don’t want to walk the streets at night” (Shawbridge resident) “There is no sense in the blocks now of community” (Sighthill resident)

Some feel nostalgic “The great thing about the flats was, we were just new here, didn’t know anybody and, within days, you’d friends because you were talking to people going up and doon in the lift. If you moved to an older wee row of houses, you might know your next door neighbour but that’ aw you would know for a long time. So the community, it’s still here but the spark isnae anymore because it, they came from outside, they’re coming in” (Sighthill resident)

Many have concerns about the future “I want to stay here, I want the houses done up. I like the view, I like my neighbours, I like my church, I like Tesco's, I’m happy here. I don’t want to move out because if I move out I won’t get back” (Sighthill resident) I’ll miss it here…I’ll miss the view, the contact with other residents in the lifts. I’ll be completely alone, I won’t even have the concierge” (Red Road resident)

But views can change “Now I’m one that fought [to keep the flats] and said no you’re no taking my building 'cause I’ve got one of the best buildings, as I thought…. And it was rather shocking to find out how much it was gonna cost us to do each house. So, we thought it’s cheaper to demolish and rebuild than it would be to fork all this money out” (Shawbridge resident)

Others oppose demolition (a minority?) Survey data?

Others oppose demolition (a minority?) “if somebody says would you like to rent instead a house with a garden and a garage for about the same money or not much more, they probably would say, yes but it doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen here by knocking down this building and they’re not going to get it in this space anyway” (Sighthill resident) “... there’s not been any sort of social implications for people. It’s been a, it’s been asking them if you want this dream of picket fence house” (Sighthill resident)

How should demolition/major regeneration be managed?

How to convince people Is demolition always the best option? How to get a community consensus - could mention Sighthill example (approx 8 consultations between ) as a bad example of gaining a community view/consensus. In some areas more straightforward (RR) because of poor quality of flats

Being realistic about what is achievable Most obvious way of ensuring a smooth path between demolition & regeneration is to do it in a phased way, but is this always achievable? “They’re pulling these flats down but they’ve not got houses to go to. Why don’t they start building the houses first before they start pulling the flats down?” (Red Road resident)

Getting worse before getting better Some areas get worse before they get better – does it have to be like this? “… they cannot remove everyone at one time. In our building there are only a few people that are left and it is getting spookier and you feel more fear about it as anything could happen. The buildings are emptied and more people from other buildings they just come to your flat and they just sit outside and drink. So that’s creating more problems”. (Red Road asylum seeker)

Communication/reassurance Many claim not to know what is going on despite local housing organisations saying they are kept well informed. “What I would like to know is, they’re talking about building new houses, I would like to know is are the flats coming down? I don’t want to be sat in my flat for the next 10 year and then to be told you’re flats not coming down, you’re not getting a new house and I’ve stuck up there all that time. Am I going to be guaranteed the option?” (Shawbridge resident)

Communication/entitlement How are decisions made about who will get the new houses and how are people informed about these? “No but what I’m saying is…whose gonna get these houses? See how they categorise these people. Well, for one, I said to him, thirty odd years here, should be entitled to one of these houses before anybody else” (Sighthill resident) “Once everything is completed and they bring in people who have not even been living [here], into the new houses …there’s going to be a lot of bitterness and this is what’s going to be a racist thing….Why should you be in [here], I should be the one living in the beautiful house. So there will be hostility, that is if they don’t give the people [from here] the first priority to go back to where they came from you know” (Sighthill asylum-seeker)

This all points to the need for good/appropriate information and communication Why demolition/regeneration is happening What is going to happen, how and when (timescales) How people/communities will be affected by the changes What is put in place to ease transition What are the short- and long- term practical, social and economic implications for those involved? Where does responsibility lie for this?

Discussion points - To what extent can the improvement of high-rise blocks (as opposed to demolition and rehousing) deliver sustained residential and social benefits to occupants? - Are the negative effects of high-rise living partly a function of context as well as built form, i.e. due to the clustering of high-rise blocks in large estates; together with the specific location of those estates within the city region? - If people are rehoused from high-rise blocks to neighbourhoods of more traditional, low-rise built forms, does this result in changes in their patterns of physical activity and social interaction?