“Saving the Highland’s rural schools, and with them the traditions and future of the communities they serve, will take joined-up thinking and a strong and determined approach to regulation of the housing market.”
Housing
Tweaking council tax won’t solve its fundamental flaws
“a revaluation is necessary. Indeed, it should be a prerequisite…To continue without revaluation is deeply unfair and to take forward reforms without a revaluation just rubs salt into the wounds.”
Gulliver’s foot and art’s redemptive power
“One by one aspects of what the CFS did were closed down or were taken back under the aegis of the council. The times changed. Austerity, unemployment, and drugs bit hard here. The Festival Society gradually declined, and so did the sense of community.”
Forget the tough talk and flag waving, Labour
“The people in lost constituencies want Starmer’s Labour to spend more, not less, than New Labour. This is the most significant aspect of “red-wall sentiment”, and yet the one Starmer seems reluctant to recognise.”
Highland homes for whom?
This tiny village (Diabaig), nestled at the foot of the Torridon mountains in Wester Ross, makes an interesting case study for the second homes issue that concerns many voters in the Highlands in the run-up to May 6. Should we regulate 2nd homes ownership?
Floating on airbeds
‘It wasn’t only the US investment houses which were scenting opportunity. Indeed, it was a subsidiary of veteran (1908) Edinburgh-based asset management specialist Baillie Gifford, which became really excited.’ Pt 2 of David Black’s examination looks at Airbnb’s history and upcoming IPO…
Airbnb blitz is blighting cities
‘Nor is it all bad, by any means. Just as there were ‘good banks’ and ‘bad banks’ after the 2008 economic crash, so there is a ‘good’ Airbnb and a ‘bad’ Airbnb.’ But the bad outweighs the good, says the author
A way home for Scotland’s homeless young people
A message of hope for Christmas. Prevention is the new focus in efforts to reduce youth homelessness in Scotland via Housing First
Part Two: the council boards a runaway train
Edinburgh, once a working city, seems destined to become a tourist theme park – that falls victim to the demise of cheap air travel…
TIAA: a global American invades Scotland
‘If subsidizing a rich US corporation amounted to an abuse of Scottish revenues, arguably it is even more serious that the government and local council forfeited their impartiality as planning authorities by buying into TIAA’s deal. They may even have breached EU State Aid rules..’