A 37-YEAR-OLD woman has moved in with her gran because of the lack of affordable homes in Glasgow.
The full-time worker’s inability to buy or rent her own place is highlighted as it was claimed that planning permission for build to rent and student accommodation outstrips affordable housing by over 20 to one in the city.
Liz Davidson is just one of the many people affected by Glasgow’s housing emergency. She has lived in Partick since she was five years old but says there is no way she could afford the new housing currently being built in the area.
“There are two developments going on near where I live, neither of which is at all affordable to me,” she said.
“I work a full-time job and they would want about 75% of my wages for a one-bedroom flat. Because of this, I’ve had to make the hard decision to stay living with my gran in her flat, which is a social home.
“At 37, I should be living independently and starting a family but I can’t afford to. That’s not my shame, it’s Glasgow City Council’s. They seem to think they’re above the rules when it comes to building affordable housing.”
The National Planning Framework 4’s requirement is that all developments include 25% affordable homes or provide “commuted sums” to help pay for infrastructure.
However purpose built student accommodation is exempt from the rule, making it more attractive to investors.
Campaign group Living Rent claim developments of purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) and build to rent in Glasgow outstrip affordable housing by 23 to one.
They say only 447 units of affordable housing (mid-market rent and social housing) were approved between February 1 2023, and March 1 2025, while 53.7% of all applications granted planning permission are for PBSA developments in Glasgow.
The majority of build-to-rent and PBSA developments are in the city centre, without any affordable housing units.
The figures show that the council could be doing much more to alleviate the housing crisis, Living Rent claims. Only two developments by private corporations had an affordable housing contribution, one of 15% and the other of 13%, the Living Rent study says.
In addition, the researchers could find no evidence of Glasgow City Council agreeing commuted sums for build-to-rent or private developments that failed to provide the 25% affordable housing component.
The council declared a housing emergency in November 2023 citing an “overwhelming increase” in homelessness.
As of September 2024, there were more than 7000 people living in temporary accommodation, of which 3100 are children. This is costing the city £36 million a year for B&B spend, a 40% increase over the last three years.
Glasgow has also seen a 22% increase in homelessness applications in the year from September 2023 to 4241.
This is not helped by the rise in private rental prices. Since 2010, rent has increased 81.8% for a two bedroom property, over 30% above inflation (50%).
Bianca Lopez, a Living Rent’s spokesperson, said Glasgow was quickly becoming a city that prioritised the interests of developers over the wellbeing of its residents.
“Glaswegians don’t need more student accommodation or expensive build-to-rent,” she said. “We need social and affordable housing.
“Across Glasgow, people are being forced out of their communities, pushed into poverty and, in some cases, made homeless by the shortage of affordable places to live.
“Our report exposes the hypocrisy of Glasgow City Council and their failures to take action on affordable housing, despite announcing a housing emergency.
“It’s unbelievable that the council has chosen to prioritise private developers’ profits over the homes that Glasgow so badly needs.”
Lopez said the council needed to prioritise affordable homes in its planning system and shift the balance away from unaffordable tenures such as PBSA and build to rent.
“It needs to implement the 25% requirement in NPF4 across the board. Only then will it be able to deliver the social and affordable housing that Glasgow deserves,” she said.
What is the council saying?
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “We do not recognise these figures. Around a half of all homes built in Glasgow every year are affordable/social, and comparing student rooms to new homes with a number of bedrooms is not comparing like for like. In Glasgow, there is a very high proportion of social homes built compared with the figures for any other Scottish or UK local authority.”
The spokesperson added that planning applications did not lead to a development.
“If a housing association puts in a planning application for a development of social/affordable homes, then it will have support for funding and will in all likelihood be built out,” he said. “This is not always the case for PBSA or build to rent.”
However Living Rent said this was ignoring the “fundamental point” of their research.
“The council is trying to pull the wool over our eyes by citing past data and ignoring the fundamental point of what our research says: their planning approvals are favouring unaffordable housing which will push up rents and push us out of the city centre,” said a spokesperson.
“Unless action is taken now, Glaswegians who have lived here their whole lives will be forced out by high rents and a lack of social housing. Glasgow needs social and affordable housing developments to be prioritised not PBSA and build-to-rent developments.
“If the developments that have received planning approval go ahead or developments seeking approval are granted permission, Glasgow and particularly the city centre would become increasingly gentrified.
“Our city centre will be a playground for the rich, all the while enabling foreign investment funds huge returns.”
With regards to comparing student accommodation with other housing developments, Living Rent said it would be wrong to count a student development as one unit when it contained hundreds of beds.
“Many social housing developments did not specify the number of beds, so the ‘unit’ metric is imperfect but the closest way to compare what is being approved,” said the spokesperson.
“Even if we assume that a social home is on average 2.5 beds, approved purpose-built student accommodation and build-to-rent developments still vastly outstrip social and affordable housing by eight to one.”
