Throughout its history, Link has maintained a position at the forefront of the modern housing association movement.
Formed by a group of business and professional people with experience and interest in housing, Link Housing Association Ltd was created shortly after the 1962 Housing (Scotland) Act came into force.
The declared aim was "to carry on the industry, business and trade of providing housing for letting and any associated amenities in Scotland".
The name "Link" was chosen because the houses built would help fill the gap between the private sector of owner-occupiers and the public sector of large housing authorities.
Following the 1962 Act, nearly £3 million was made available at comparatively low interest rates for so-called "cost rent" housing to be provided by Link and other voluntary housing associations.
Link secured over £1 million of the available funds and, between 1964 and 1966, used it to build more than 200 new dwellings in high amenity areas of Edinburgh and in Polmont.
Three of the developments received Saltire Awards for design, reflecting the commitment to quality which lies at the heart of all Link's activities - now as then.
The houses were geared towards people in the middle-management sector, those who were considered by the Government to be essential to the revitalisation of the Scottish economy in the 1960s.
At the same time, however, Link was active in the provision of small flats for older people who were able to live independently. All of these properties were in Edinburgh, the majority in the New Town, close to shops and bus routes.
Loans from Edinburgh Corporation helped Link provide suitable accommodation, mainly by subdivision and modernisation of older property.
In the mid-1960s, a further Act of Parliament introduced a new form of tenure - Co-Ownership.
Co-Ownership housing was financed by loans obtained from the Government (through the Housing Corporation, its funding and supervisory agency) and various building societies. The repayments of these loans were met from the rent levied on the properties. When co-owners moved out, they received premium payments related to the increase in value of the housing during their occupation.
Link developed 11 co-ownership estates in Glasgow, Paisley, Dundee, Edinburgh and East Lothian - a total of 544 houses.
By the mid-1970s, the increasing cost of this type of housing, coupled with rising interest rates and the complexities of its management, made it a less attractive form of housing provision.
Since the Tenants' Rights, Etc. (Scotland) Act 1980 enabled co-ownership societies to sell properties to their members, co-ownership has virtually disappeared from the Scottish housing scene.
The introduction of "Fair Rent" housing through the 1974 Housing Act brought the injection of substantial subsidy to housing associations from the public purse. In return, associations were required to submit to scrutiny and registration by the Housing Corporation.
Link's registration in 1975 heralded a period of significant development. Work was concentrated mainly in the Edinburgh, Falkirk and Glasgow areas (where local offices were established).
Nonetheless, Link's willingness to operate wherever housing needs arose was demonstrated by its presence in places as far apart as Kyle of Lochalsh, Kelso, Linwood and Eyemouth.
It was also during this period that, through its experience and growing resources, Link was asked to help other associations establish themselves. When Port of Leith Housing Association was set up in 1975, it was initially serviced by Link's staff and committee members.
Such was its success that, after only a year, Port of Leith was able to become an independent association with its own full-time staff - it has since proved a major contributor to the revitalisation of Edinburgh's port.
Link also provided agency services for Scottish Airports Housing Association (now Hjaltland Housing Association) in Shetland and for Kingdom Housing Association in Fife. Both of these also became fully independent and thriving organisations.
Culdion Housing Association (which provided housing for abused women) and James F. Montgomerie Housing Association (for people with hearing impairments) also benefited from Link's support in their early days.
Other housing associations encountered problems during completion of schemes or were unable to obtain registration with the Housing Corporation and sought to transfer their stock. Between 1976 and 1980, five such associations transferred 280 houses to Link in Edinburgh, Falkirk, Grangemouth and Stirling.
Among the effects of the 1974 Act was a greater emphasis on housing to meet the needs of single people, older people and people with disabilities. Link catered for each of these groups - and in many schemes incorporated accommodation for all three!
Some people who might not require specially adapted houses nevertheless did need help with obtaining and keeping a tenancy. In partnership with health and social work departments and local community-based voluntary organisations, Link started to incorporate places for such supported accommodation in 1981.
Then as now, Link focused particularly on three main areas - young people, people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities. Projects for people with hearing or visual impairments were also established.
Link set a target of 10% of its houses for this purpose.
With the introduction in 1981 of a new form of housing tenure - Shared Ownership - Link assumed a pioneering role.
Using funds released from the sale of co-ownership properties, Link was one of the four housing associations involved in the first programme and claimed about £1 million of that initial funding to buy 48 properties throughout Central Scotland, mainly in Glasgow and Lanarkshire.
Link has now acquired or developed a total of more than 600 dwellings for this form of tenure, including 170 in the east of Scotland from Lowlands Housing Society as a result of its transfer into Link in 1997.
Link has always sought to meet a wide range of housing needs. Because Link Housing Association itself was precluded by law from providing housing for sale and for market rent - and from offering services to other associations - a subsidiary was formed to fulfil these functions.
Link Homes Limited was created in 1985 as a voluntary non-profit making housing association not registered with Scottish Homes.
Working in partnership with local authorities, Scottish Homes, local enterprise companies, developers and others, Link Homes addressed the needs of people requiring quality, low-cost accommodation for sale or for market rent.
It reinvested any surpluses in its own activities or those of its charitable parent body.
Link Homes has provided more than 400 high quality homes for sale in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Hamilton, Stirling, Fife, the Scottish Borders and Highlands. Almost all were purchased by first-time buyers, most of whom had been on local authority waiting lists.
Link Homes also delivered 140 homes for market rent in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Falkirk, Coatbridge, Livingston and Fife.
Introduced in 1987, the Right to Buy for most "secure" tenants had a significant impact and, during the last 20 years, more than 700 of Link's tenants have become home owners.
This reduction in the availability of rented accommodation has been offset by Link's continuing development of new homes - including projects in new areas such as West Lothian, Crieff and the 'New Towns'.
With the formation of Scottish Homes in 1989, housing associations were obliged to part-fund their projects with significant sums of money borrowed from Banks or Building Societies. Link was well placed to attract such lenders and has since obtained private finance amounting to over £50m.
Together with Scottish Homes grants, this funding has helped sustain Link's involvement in new initiatives, including:
Partnership working has been fundamental to Link's successes. One clear example of this was a project at St John's Hill, Edinburgh, completed in 1998. Through a partnership of Link, Edinvar and Haven Housing Associations, Link Homes, and Edinburgh Council for Single Homeless, it provided 67 new homes in a wide mixture of tenures, including 30 flats for affordable rent, 17 flats for shared ownership, 11 flats for market rent, nine flats for people sharing, and a day centre.
Another notable success was the construction of five new energy-efficient "sustainable" homes in Ballingry by a group of 10 self-builders who, on completion in 2000, occupied them on a shared ownership basis. Link's partners in this project were Community Self Build Scotland, Fife Council, Scottish Homes, Lauder College and the Benarty Improvement Group.
Using its own reserves, Link match-funded grants from the Scottish Executive (through Falkirk Council) as part of the Government's Empty Homes Initiative to amalgamate unpopular tenemental bed-sits in Camelon to provide family accommodation where there had been none. Conversions took place between 1998 and 2000, resulting in a more balanced and stable community.
Another partnership initiative - this time on a much larger scale - was seen in the Niddrie/Craigmillar area of Edinburgh. From 1999, a consortium of four housing associations (Link, Canmore, Castle Rock and Edinvar) has participated with the local community and the City of Edinburgh Council to help with the area's regeneration. Participants in the project adopted the title "Kintry" (meaning "neighbourhood" in old Scots). The first phase of new homes built on cleared sites was completed in 2001 and included 60 for rent by Link and 67 for sale by Link Homes. The new homes were eagerly snapped up as soon as they were released. 2004 saw the transfer from the City of Edinburgh Council of 130 flats in Craigmillar Castle to Link for improvement. Having successfully facilitated the building or improvement of some 650 homes and anticipating the establishment of a Neighbourhood Board to cover the whole area, Kintry wound itself up in 2006.
In 2002, a consortium including Link was awarded the contract to develop 1,200 new homes for sale and social rent in Oatlands, Glasgow. The first of these is due for completion in January 2007.
Link and five of the other most dynamic Scottish Registered Social Landlords joined forces in 2002 to form the Larach alliance to develop 800 new homes by 2007 while improving quality and sustainability and establishing co-operative relationships between client, contractor and supplier. Visit www.larach.org.uk for further details.
The prevention of homelessness has always been one of Link's key objectives. With the help of £0.5 million donated by Link Homes, Link was able to provide housing projects specifically for this purpose in Falkirk and Edinburgh - and to assist with the provision of furniture and kitchen equipment.
Link participates in other initiatives to alleviate homelessness, such as Mortgage to Rent which allows owner occupiers facing repossession to become Link tenants without having to move home.
For nine years, Inverlink developed projects with various housing associations, Scottish Homes and local authorities. Established in 1995 as a joint venture between Link Homes and Tulloch Homes, its remit incorporated a wide range of provision including general needs housing for rent, low-cost housing for sale and projects for Community Care.
In 1998, Inverlink finished its first development - for Almond Housing Association in Livingston - and completed a new citadel for the Salvation Army in Falkirk. It went on to deliver low-cost homes for sale in Falkirk, Bellshill, Coatbridge and Auchtermuchty and developed special projects for Barony Housing Association and the Richmond Fellowship.
In 2004, Inverlink's various activities and projects were absorbed into Link Homes' and Link Group's remits and the company is currently dormant.
Link has consistently recognised and responded to the aspirations and needs of its supported tenants.
Between 1998 and 2000, Link used its own reserves to replaced its group homes and "cluster" flats (pioneering developments in the early '80s but failing to meet expectations 20 years on) with small scale, ordinary housing. This "re-provisioning" cost £0.5 million and was part of Link's development of a "wider role" (which is described in more detail later). The service continues to expand and now comprises five projects - in Falkirk, Fife, East and Midlothian and Edinburgh - with more than 400 service users .
Since 2001, the Housing Support service has been delivered by LinkLiving, one of Link's subsidiary companies. It now comprises five projects - in Falkirk, Edinburgh, Mid and East Lothian and Fife - and over 150 staff members support more than 400 service users. Recent initiatives have been the peer support project in Falkirk (called 'Smart Move')and the production of a short film and booklet to promote services for young people - 'Lives Behind Labels'.
A new post established in 1998, Link's Tenant Liaison Officer works closely with staff, tenants and local communities to identify the scope and need for projects to complement Link's activities and to further those which will assist in the alleviation of local economic, employment, training, health, amenity and security problems.
Through consultation and training, the Tenant Liaison Officer also develops relationships with tenants to encourage greater tenant involvement in Link's activities.
In 2003 Link hosted its fourth annual tenants conference and its significant progress in developing tenant involvement was recognised the following year by the Tenant Participation and Advisory Service and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIOH) in Scotland with their 'Outstanding Achievement in Tenant Participation' award.
A firm commitment to good quality housing has proved to be a catalyst for the provision of training, employment, education and community development.
Link committed to investing £2 million over a 10-year period to promote social and economic security, stability and development in the diverse communities in which it was active.
Linkwide was established as a subsidiary in 2001 to focus on this activity and has initiated and delivered a significant programme of area regeneration in partnership with local communities, politicians, local authorities, health boards, voluntary organisations and Communities Scotland - in Edinburgh, Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire and Falkirk.
Initiatives have included the issue of IT Starter Packs to young people in Falkirk, an IT Learning Centre in Petersburn/Craigneuk(North Lanarkshire), the development of a Healthy Living Centre and a Dental Surgery in Kirkshaws, Coatbridge and the establishment of a locally-based caretaking business (the Dalmuir Community Concierge Service) serving tenants of seven Registered Social Landlords in West Dunbartonshire.
Link also participated in the regeneration of the Dawson area of Falkirk, teaming up in 2003 with local residents, the Dawson Initiative, Falkirk Council, Communities Scotland and the Ogilvie Group.
Linkwide has a Welfare Rights Advice Team to respond to the needs of tenants and others who may not be claiming or receiving all the welfare or social security benefits to which they are entitled. The team has raised almost £2m in increased benefits for tenants during the past three years.
The drive towards "sustainability" was behind the completion in 2000 of 64 new homes at Comely Green Place in Edinburgh for rent, shared ownership, and community care needs.
Link Homes also developed 31 new flats on the site as part of an overall project designed to minimise the adverse effects of new development on the environment and to reduce the minimum costs of dwellings.
Since the Comely Green Place initiative - which was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland with a 2000 Scottish Housing and Innovation Award for environmental building and best practice - all of Link's projects have been developed with sustainability in mind.
By December 2000, Link had become the largest organisation of its type in Scotland at that time with more than 6,200 properties in management in 22 Scottish local authority areas.
This followed a merger with Gap Housing Association which managed 2,600 homes, mainly in Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire.
The merger paved the way for substantial investment in new or improved houses.
The roots of the merger lay in Gap's approach to several housing associations in Scotland for help in delivering a backlog of major improvement and repair projects and to enhance services to tenants while keeping rents affordable.
Link's response emerged as the most suitable option - a financially sound and stable organisation, well placed to take forward a major programme of improvement and to deliver quality services to tenants.
The first post-merger project was the construction of 245 houses in Petersburn, Airdrie. This "volume procurement" contract, within a wide-ranging, community regeneration initiative, was the first of its kind in Scotland and would cost £18 million. Link's intensive work with various agencies and the local community was recognised in 2006 when the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland presented Link with its Excellence in Community Regeneration award.
Redevelopments of former Gap properties in Possilpark, Glasgow and at Dalmuir have followed this initiative.
The merger also meant that Link took on the management/factoring of a significant volume of owner/occupied homes.
The new millennium saw a major review of the organisation with an expansion of its group structure to reflect its wider role, to create more focus and to achieve tenant, service user and customer involvement. An expanded range of subsidiary companies was established under a new 'parent' (Link Group), each of which focussed on particular parts of Link's business. (For example, Link Property dealt with the increased factoring work which the merger with Gap HA had brought and managed Link's market rented,shared ownership and former Right to Buy stock along with leases to other organisations - some 2000 customers).
In 2006, a further reorganisation took place resulting in the current structure of companies in the group:
In 2002 Link obtained a loan facility of £50 million, the largest single social housing funding agreement in Scotland at that time.
In 2004, Link adopted the homehunt ® 'choice - based' lettings scheme of housing allocation.
In September 2005, Link piloted a new Homestake initiative in Edinburgh and the Lothians in partnership with Communities Scotland and two other Associations - Dunedin Canmore and Castle Rock Edinvar. Homestake provides financial assistance to people wanting to buy homes in pressured housing market areas.
All the companies in the Link group had achieved Investors In People status and Scotland's Health at Work (SHAW) Silver Award by 2006.
In July 2006, Link opened its Customer Service Centre in new offices in Watling House, Callendar Park, Falkirk. This provides one point of telephone contact for all of Link Housing's customers and allows housing and technical officers more time on site to engage with the people and communities we serve.
Late in 2006, Larkfield Housing Association joined the Link group as a subsidiary. Owning or managing almost 1000 properties in Greenock, this is the only current example of a Scottish RSL having another Scottish RSL as its 'parent'.
2007 was a year of significant change for Link. The death of long-serving Chair Douglas Sievewright in September was a great loss. Under his stewardship, Link grew significantly in terms of its breadth of activity, customer base and quality of service. Link's current position as a trusted, respected, leading social landlord and service provider in many parts of Scotland is thanks mainly to him. New Chair Robbie Robertson and Vice-Chair Peter Foreman were appointed in October.
Link moved from its headquarters in Albany Street, Edinburgh, to a new purpose-built head office in Slateford, in the west of the city. In addition to being better suited to Link’s business needs, the new office has helped the organisation to significantly reduce its carbon footprint through measures such as passive solar gain, natural ventilation, high efficiency boilers and improved water management.
The election of a new Scottish Government in May 2007 presented a new set of challenges. The Government issued a consultation paper – ‘Firm Foundations’ - in October on its proposals to address the housing crisis in Scotland. Link is broadly supportive of the Government’s proposals, and responded to the consultation.
Following the successful integration of Larkfield Housing Association as a subsidiary of Link Group, the transfer of housing from Blythswood and Port Glasgow Housing Associations took place, and discussions were underway with Linstone Housing Association with the intention that Linstone with become a subsidiary in the group by November 2008. Link will continue to research further opportunities for mergers and joint working arrangements.
Link joined the Rowan Group * of six RSLs operating in Edinburgh; one of only three alliances which have been awarded preferred developer status by the City of Edinburgh Council. The aim is to expand Link’s development programme and explore new procurement practices as part of this group. Ways of working in partnership with organisations other than RSLs, which have a strategic and operational fit with Link, will also be explored.
( * The Rowan Group website does not yet show Link as members. It will be updated sioon.)
Having administered the Scottish Executive’s shared equity scheme Homestake in Edinburgh and the Lothians since 2005, Link's commercial development arm Link Homes was appointed by the Scottish Government as administrators of its new shared equity scheme, LIFT, in Edinburgh and the Lothians, and the Perth & Kinross Council and Stirling Council areas.
Now serving 10,000 families and individuals and with a dedicated staff of more than 340 people, a firm foundation has been created which will enable the Link group to continue to progress and to develop into new areas of housing, service provision and community regeneration.
For further details on these events and other news stories up to 2007, go to Archived News.
For the most recent stories during 2008 go to Current News.
Page last updated on Wednesday, 23 July 2008
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