Case Studies   The Glasgow Case Study. The Gorbals

Gorbals - introduction

The Gorbals is an inner city area extending to approximately 240 hectares, located on the south bank of the River Clyde immediately opposite the city centre and Glasgow Green. The long and attractive river frontage offers major development potential, which, due to lack of investment, has been slow to realise. By contrast important industrial and commercial areas, offering substantial economic potential, form the southern and western boundaries of the Gorbals.

In addition to the area's residential and industrial characteristics the area hosts a range of city centre functions – the Sheriff Court , Central Mosque, Legal House and the Hospice. However the economic benefit of these citywide functions to the area has been limited in terms of local employment or growth of local businesses.

Over and above these functions the area has a cultural dimension with the well-established Citizen's Theatre, which has active community involvement, and an exciting new music venue just launched.

The local authority, Glasgow City Council, provides public services such as schools, social work services, culture and leisure services and refuse collection. The Glasgow National Health Service Board is responsible for the delivery of health care services and Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive is responsible for transport issues.

Very recently, March 2003, and following a ballot of all tenants, Glasgow City Council transferred its stock of social rented housing to the newly established Glasgow Housing Association, which is a not-for-profit body run by a voluntary management committee consisting of tenants, elected members and independents.

Government run employment services are delivered nationally by Job Centre Plus, however much of the government funded provision is contracted out at a local level, which has resulted in a wide variety of providers competing for business in the city and questions being raised about duplication and overlap.

Historically Scotland had a two tier local government system (reformed in 1997) and it was Strathclyde Regional Council, the largest of the regional councils, which secured the European funding for the development of the former Adelphi Street School into The Adelphi Employment and Training centre. This investment, the largest single European grant to be awarded to the city at that time, has been a tremendous success bringing new services and jobs into the area. Gorbals Initiative now runs the centre.

The Crown Street Regeneration Project is one of the key players in the area. Established in 1991, the project represented a major investment in the development of a masterplan for the Gorbals, pulling together both the public and private sector. The Crown Street Management Trust was established to preserve the quality of the redeveloped area, dealing with community safety, CCTV and resident concerns.

Gorbals Initiative was also established in 1991 to ensure that the economic development of the area kept apace with physical redevelopment.

The Glasgow College of Nautical Studies, based in the Gorbals, provides a range of community based learning opportunities to the local community, in addition to attracting national and international students.

The area is well served by a range of community groups providing valuable services to local residents. These range from lunch clubs for isolated elderly people to a parents support group and support for asylum seekers new to the area helping them to integrate with their new community. The Gorbals Community Forum supports these groups, acting as an umbrella group offering advice on sources of funding. Gorbals Initiative is also active in developing capacity within the community through the provision of opportunities for training and development especially for new and emerging community champions.

However despite the good news that heralds the ‘New Gorbals' there still exists areas of concentrated deprivation, poverty and poor housing.

Laurieston, which forms the west boundary, has yet to be redeveloped, although a feasibility study has recently been completed and a steering group has been set up to over see the initial planning stage.

Laurieston is characterised by four ‘double' high rise block containing 1,200 units. These flats are both expensive to rent and unpopular which has resulted in the highest turnover of tenants in the city. This results in high numbers of asylum seekers and people moving out of homeless hostels that are placed in these hard to let blocks.

Understandably, as soon as these individuals gain economic independence, usually through employment, they move on to better accommodation. Hence this area ‘exports' employment and ‘imports' unemployment.

More recently, in this area, reports are emerging of asylum seekers being subject to hostility and harassment. This has alarmed the wider community who have long held the image of the Gorbals being a welcoming and integrated community.

Map 1 Location of Gorbals in City

(showing Local Economic Development areas in the city)

Map 2 Gorbals

Table of contents    Gorbals - history