User:Kyehen/sandbox/Glasgow

Public Transportation
Glasgow acquired control of the tramway system, and they undertook the responsibility to repair and manufacture the trains. The city first introduced electrified railroads in 1894, and had a fully electrified and integrated system by the end of the decade.

Stock Transfer
Since the election of the New Labour government in 1997, there has been a decline in council housing in Glasgow. At its peak in 1981, Glasgow had 174,000 council housing units. In 2003, right before the implementation of the stock transfer, the city had 85,000 council housing units. The New Labour party had openly critiqued the council house provision in the past as “expensive, inefficient, and monopolistic.” In an attempt to renovate the social housing sector and also to the empower citizens that live in council houses, the government started the beginning stages of a stock transfer. A stock transfer involves transferring the ownership and responsibility of council houses out of the public sector. Stock transfers are not unique to Glasgow. They are an important tool in refinancing existing social housing all over the United Kingdom. Glasgow’s version of stock transfer aims to devolve council housing into community based ownership. It has been a large transfer with over 80,000 housing units being devolved, and unlike other stock transfer programs, it is split into two parts. First, housing units are transferred from the city council to the Glasgow Housing Association. From there, ownership is transferred to the community. Community ownership is a policy vehicle that contains discourses like government decentralisation, citizen participation, and self-management.

In 2003, the stock transfer began with Glasgow City Council transferring its council housing to the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA). The GHA is a non-profit organisation that is regulated by the Scottish Housing Regulator that works with Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and NHS Scotland. Progress towards the second transfer has been slow due to financial issues. By 2008, only 2,000 council housing units had been devolved to community ownership. As of 2017, the stock transfer was ongoing.