Stewart Paterson: What should we do with Glasgow's high rise flats?

When the city did not have enough space to house all the families that were crammed into tenements the planners came up with the answer - “build them high”.

Sold to the public as ‘streets in the sky’ in an attempt to ease concerns that the community feel would be lost with the new housing model, multi-storey flats became the norm in Glasgow.

READ MORE: Tenants back demolition of Wyndford tower blocks say housing bosses

Now the city is grappling with what to do with those that remain. Refurbish or demolish?

High-rise living can work and many private developments are being built in the city of similar height and equal density to some of the multi-storey ‘schemes’ of the latter 20th century – as can be seen with the built to rent developments springing up all over the city centre.

When it’s the private sector it’s a development but when it’s the public sector as social housing it’s a scheme.

There has been a stigma associated with social/council housing and the high-rise areas suffered more than most.

Since the housing stock transfer 20 years ago the skyline of Glasgow has changed with some of the most famous tower blocks taken down with explosives.

The Proclaimers could write a song about it ... Red Road no more, Sighthill no more, Laurieston no more, Shawbridge no more.

READ MORE: 'These flats are not coming down': Campaigners occupy high rise blocks

There are reasons why these flats no longer exist.

The main one is people no longer wanted to live in them in enough numbers that justified their existence.

Dozens of the high-rise experiments disappeared with little or no protest, but with a little sadness as the majority of people spent many good years in them.

The sadness at demolition is perhaps for what might have been, as hope turned to despair for too many.

At first, the high flats across the city were welcome. Tenants were delighted, mostly because everything was new.

Fitted kitchens, bathrooms inside and enough bedrooms, (mostly) for young families.

But then they became as much of a problem as the overcrowded tenements which they replaced.

The decline was quick.

Design flaws became apparent in many, with dampness a serious problem, underinvestment led to them not being maintained and the social and economic problems that blighted Glasgow from the late 1970s hit these areas harder than many others.

The industry that provided work for the parents who moved in disappeared, meaning many left the city for work and poverty took its place.

The planners are not immune.

Thousands of people were crammed into a small footprint with not enough amenities factored in.

Sometimes you could wonder if they were so obsessed with design they forgot real people would be living in them.

Now in the 2020s, most people would, if you ask them, prefer low-rise living, ideally with their own back and front door and some outdoor space.

There is still a place for high-rise social housing and there are examples of buildings being refurbished, at great cost, and people are still happy to live there.

Another problem is Glasgow has a shortage of suitable homes for social rent.

There are more than 6000 people a year in temporary accommodation waiting for a permanent place to call home.

READ MORE: Glasgow council owed £4m as homeless temporary accommodation increases

More social housing would help that, which raises a number of questions...

Whether we want to offer those people a flat 18 storeys high in a block that is costing too much to maintain is a question that needs to be answered.

There is another issue with available land. Housing associations are locked out of much of the land in the city.

So many plots are being sold to developers to build flats where the profits from inflated rents will flow out of the city into the coffers of already wealthy international investors.

Social landlords also need enough cash from the Government’s affordable housing subsidies to build enough homes.

Some of the high rises can work, others, if they are not fit for purpose, need to be replaced.

The latest blocks earmarked for demolition are in Wyndford, in the Maryhill area.

Few people remain in the four towers and demolition is planned for the spring.

It has been met with a high-profile protest and some residents genuinely want them retained and invested in.

Others argue they are of social and architectural significance.

There is something uncomfortable about planners and architects telling us flats should be retained because of their architectural importance when people have been trying to get out of them for decades.

Having spent more than 80% of my life in this city living in tenement flats, I have never lived in a multi-storey flat.

But as these were mostly in social housing, I, like many Glasgow citizens, am well aware of the issues associated with high-rise social housing.

After Glasgow has had decades of failed housing experiments imposed on the people, that ended in rubble from the wrecking ball or gelignite, perhaps the best people to ask are those who are living or have lived there.