Publicly, the Scottish government says it is committed to supporting housing co-ops. But evidence suggests that government officials don’t understand how housing co-ops work, with campaigners feeling let down after years of broken promises.
While social housing co-ops in Scotland receive government funding and financial exemptions, regular non-profit co-ops pay the government through taxes and charges. Campaigners say financial relief could help more co-ops get set up and sustain existing ones, providing affordable homes for more people during the current housing crisis, but the government seems resistant to creating changes.
The issue is particularly stark when it comes to student housing; there is a shortage of 20,000 student beds in Edinburgh and Glasgow, with thousands of students at risk of homelessness. But 106 students live in Edinburgh Student Housing Coop (ESHC) – the UK’s largest student housing co-op (main picture). Paying £388 per month, they’re among a small minority who have found affordable, secure housing in the city.
Emilia Kibble, a student living in ESHC, says: “Our low rent is only possible because we’re not for profit. The community spirit aspect of co-ops is also beneficial for people’s wellbeing, especially in the current climate of increasing social alienation.”
Related: Report from the UK co-op housing conference
ESHC has been run by the students who live in it for over a decade, proving the model can work. Its members say they have asked the Scottish government housing department for a meeting for years to discuss how the government could support the model. But while some individual MSPs have shown support, the housing team has never met with them.
Lorenzo Martinico from ESHC says he met the former housing minister, Paul McLennan, twice at Scottish Parliament events and asked if they could have a meeting. “He said repeatedly that he supported the model, and told us to email him to set up a meeting. But it never went beyond warm words.”
Martinico says McLennan deflected requests for meetings, at one point citing engagement with National Union of Students Scotland instead, even though it doesn’t focus on co-ops.
Approached for a comment, McLennan says: “Meeting requests are handled by Scottish government colleagues – I can’t recall declining a meeting with the Student Housing Co-op. The only time I met with the student housing group was at the Cross Party Group on Housing in parliament.”
Glasgow MSP and chair of the Cross Party Group on Co-operatives, Paul Sweeney, says there is resistance within the Scottish government to making changes around co-op housing models.
“There’s a kind of attitudinal dislike to small housing co-ops and community-based housing,” he says. He thinks the government is sceptical of tenant leadership, and likely views co-ops like ESHC as “friends doing a houseshare”.
Sweeney says efforts to amend recent housing legislation to support co-ops were unsuccessful, and ministers appear more focused on large-scale construction. Martinico similarly believes the housing minister’s main priorities were revenue-raising and large-scale development.
“There needs to be a culture shift in Scotland about how important these organisations are and how much potential they bring to the country,” says Sweeney, “particularly in the context of massive student accommodation models, which are investor-led and extracting properties and rent out of the country.”
The Scottish government ran a consultation in 2023 around the 8% tax it charges on top of the cost of buying a second property, the Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS). Asked if models like co-ops should be exempted from ADS, 83% of respondents said yes, but the government didn’t grant an exemption.
Instead, it made a “commitment to explore ways in which further support can be provided for housing co-operatives”. But years after the consultation, evidence suggests that Scottish government officials still have little understanding of how housing co-ops work.
Related: Student housing co-op secures property with £300k support from Scotmid
Co-op News freedom of information requests revealed internal government emails, with officials saying in 2025 that they don’t have a clear understanding of how the housing co-op model operates. One government official referred to housing co-ops as “a bit of an unknown entity”.
The emails also revealed officials saying there’s “no ‘home’ for co-ops in the Housing Team”, while another said “co-ops is an area that does not really have a housing policy home”.
Co-operatives UK policy officer, Tom Laing, says “We know progress is being held back by confusion around the co-op model – as well as a lack of clarity around responsibility and policy support. Housing co-operatives could deliver more of the affordable, community-led housing that ministers say they want to see. We’re ready to work with the Scottish government to help make that happen.”
Charities and social landlords are exempt from the ADS – as are co-ops classed as Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), such as West Granton Housing Co-op in Edinburgh. Its CEO, Larke Adger, says RSL co-ops have been well supported by the Scottish government in recent years. But co-ops that aren’t RSLs, like ESHC, still have to pay the charge.
Martinico says non-RSL housing co-ops provide a “third way: it’s not for-profit development, and it’s not the government pumping money into social housing”.
He adds: “The ADS tax exists to penalise people that use companies as a vehicle to own second homes. But when people use the corporate structure of a co-op to buy a house together, it’s not buying a second home for vacation. You’re buying a primary residence, and that should be something the exemption recognises.”
Related: London needs ‘more cash and land for CLTs and housing co-ops’
The second financial burden on co-ops is the Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) fee. Martinico says, “HMO is secondary legislation, so the housing minister can decide what the exemptions are. It would take just the stroke of a pen to save us £30,000 per year.”
Kibble says the charges are excluding people without significant financial backing from starting co-ops, and exemptions would help the Scottish co-op housing market to grow.
Approached for comment, a Scottish government spokesperson said: “Co-operatives are a valued part of the social housing sector in Scotland… The government and housing regulator provide a legal, regulatory and financial framework within which housing co-ops can operate and grow in the social rented sector.”
There has been some positive engagement this year. Last month, Co-operatives UK held a reception at Holyrood, sponsored by Green MSP Lorna Slater, showcasing its Call for a Co-operative Scotland policy platform, which includes tools and case studies for use ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections. Adger spoke at the event and Glasgow Student Housing Cooperative members were in attendance.
Also in January, Blair McDougall MP and Kirsty McNeill MP from the Department for Business and Trade hosted a roundtable at New Lanark, where co-ops and mutuals could suggest ways government can support them.
The UK’s Confederation of Co-operative Housing will launch its Scottish manifesto in Glasgow on 5 March – and later that month Co-operatives UK is attending a roundtable hosted by the Scottish Housing Regulator alongside several RSL housing co-ops.
