by Niall Christie
Scotland editor

CAMPAIGNERS will occupy a development site in Glasgow today in a bid to prevent it from being sold to privateers.

The activists hope to force a community buyout or the building of social housing.

Tenants’ union Living Rent has pledged to prevent vacant land in Maryhill from being bought by private developers, with a bidder to be selected today.

Organisers from the union hope that the occupation will stop work from starting while they carry out a community consultation, claiming that the council has overlooked residents. 

The council said that there were “strict assessment criteria” for the purchaser, adding this development was part of a wider project providing new homes, the majority of which will be socially rented. 

Development plans currently state that 125 new low-cost homes would be built.

Among these would include a number of so-called “affordable” units, which a council spokesman said would “transform” the area. 

But union members in Maryhill say that the plans would change the dynamic of the area, which has remained derelict for over a decade since the demolition of a previous housing scheme. 

A petition has also been launched opposing the private development of the land, with backing from local Labour, Green and SNP politicians.

Living Rent organiser Nick Durie said: “This used to be a scheme, it should stay a scheme.

“This is public land. What this amounts to is a privatisation of the public realm. 

“This would lead to greater misery for a community that already suffers as a result of austerity and poverty.” 

The mobilisation marks the first efforts by Living Rent to implement its manifesto ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May.

The group’s plans call for “restorative justice for vacant land in all new public housing, to maximise public housing.”

Mr Durie said that this campaign will be the first of many across Scotland. 

He said: “What we’re calling for is for vacant land to be prioritised for public housing.

“We’ll be taking the fight across the country to other vacant sites to show the political class they must respond to the housing crisis.”