​Serious governance failure identified at Glasgow HA

An emergency takeover has been made of a troubled housing association in order to protect tenants.

The Scottish Housing Regulator (SRA) has appointed four people to lead Glasgow’s Molendinar Park HA.

It said it took the action to “protect the interests of Molendinar Park’s tenants and service users” following “serious governance failure”.

Regulators stepped in after the association identified that its governing body did not meet its own constitutional requirements and sought support to address this.

It was the discovered that the majority of the governing body were not properly elected members and therefore could not make decisions on behalf of the association.

A report has found that the situation had been "on-going for a significant period of time and ... posed a serious and immediate risk to tenants’ interests."

Christine Macleod, director of regulation at SRA, said: “We’re making these appointments to support Molendinar Park to address this serious governance failure and ensure it has a properly constituted management committee.

“The association was unable to address its issues without our intervention. It acted appropriately by reporting this to us and has been working openly and co-operatively with us.

“We will continue to engage with the association as it works, with the support of the appointees, to address this governance problem.”

Molendinar Park was registered in 1993. It owns and manages 582 homes and provides factoring services to 250 properties in the east end of Glasgow.

It employs nine members of staff and has a turnover of £2.15 million a year, based on its most recent figures.