Lister Housing Co-operative is a 185 flat

housing co-operative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity which owns real estate consisting of one or more residential buildings. The entity is usually a cooperative or a corporation and constitutes a form of housing tenure. Typically hous ...

and registered social landlord in Edinburgh's

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins. In some cases, newer developments on t ...

Properties

The

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

is in a strong financial position, having long bought their properties outright. The properties are located within the

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

and are mostly Category B listed buildings. They are maintained to a high standard through working closely with

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

Legal structure

The co-operative's Management Committee are all

tenants A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a lea ...

and have had training and support to run this organisation which has a turnover of almost £750,000. The co-operative is a Registered Society under the Co-operatives and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, a former Industrial & Provident Society (IPS) regulated by the

Scottish Housing Regulator The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) () is an independent Non-Ministerial Department, directly accountable to the Scottish Parliament. The body was established on 1 April 2011 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010. SHR is the successor to the p ...

and the

Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom. It operates independently of the UK Government and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financi ...

History

Established in 1976, Lister was Scotland's first

registered social landlord, providing

social housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

. The co-operative was formed to prevent a block of historic Georgian

tenements A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

on Lauriston Place, Heriot Place and Keir Street from planned demolition by the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, as part of the University's substantial expansion programme at the time. 10 - 14 Lauriston Place

Opposition to the planned demolition led to persuading the Council's Planning Committee to not re-zone the site from housing to education uses, which the University lost. It was agreed that Lister would take over the tenements, and with the help of the former Edinvar Housing Association, renovated them between 1978-82 to provide 135 flats. When similar blocks on the south side of Lauriston Place, between Lauriston Terrace and Archibald Place, were threatened with demolition in the mid-80s by the

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Com ...

, Lister fought again with others to save those blocks and again won. They were renovated to provide 50 high quality flats.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Housing cooperatives in the United Kingdom Housing associations based in Scotland Organisations based in Edinburgh 1976 establishments in Scotland