Platformism

It depends on the association. what has to be remembered is that housing associations were initially formed by punters who wanted to improve their lot. They were responsive to the needs of the community, they were basically like early consumer co-ops or something. When they built new stock they tended to build better than some of the crap people had put up for years with in council housing. In essence their existence in places like Glasgow might even have been looked upon as a way of furthering the class struggle and working class autonomy.

We know what they are now of course but people have this folk memory of going to Housing Association meetings and housing associations being _a good thing_, especially in comparison with landlords like Glasgow city council.

Obviously this is not the case and is a viewpoint that is thirty years out of date with the march of history but it's one that has a lot of support.

Stands to reason re tenants rights and rents. HAs are just questions of a lack of economies of scale. Also Councils have a duty (in Scotland anyway) to rehouse people, and even before that if they papped somebody out onto the street they'd have to mop up afterwards, sort of thing. As a business a housing association doesn't need to give a fuck and has to worry more about rents as (apart from state grants) it's their sole potential revenue stream.