Highland Council Marketing Option

Look at this, at the end of applying to be on the housing register for Highland Council, this translates as “I understand you are homeless but can we take a moment to sell your details”. Outrageous.

In somewhat related news, building work has started in Glenelg for a few affordable homes. Apparently this is despite local opposition(!) to the development from the neighbour!

Comments

Lesley says:

A few comments on your somewhat inaccurate take on the Highland Housing Register and the affordable housing development in Glenelg.

Some of the developers in the Highlands build as part of their developments with funding from Scottish government affordable to purchase housing – either under the shared equity schemes or shared ownership schemes or maybe through Communities Housing Trust who can assist with rent to buy or self build housing – these are all subject to the applicants living and working or with definite job offers for work in the Highlands and subject to financial eligibility assessments. The applicant names are not sold !

The new development in Glenelg was facilitated by a local resident approaching and agreeing to sell to the housing association an area of land for affordable housing given the demand in the community for this and as vouched by the numbers on the Highland housing register seeking affordable housing in Glenelg.

The neighbour who objected owns a house they were able to afford to buy and which is located not far from the new development. They appeared to be concerned that the development was for social housing ! Shock horror !

You might wish to explore more about the housing issues with the community council in Glenelg who have been making efforts to engage with local land owners to establish if more land can be made available for building of affordable housing . Such matters take time and effort to explore, plan for and develop and cost more given distances from material providers and lack of contractors locally in parts of the Highlands.

If you know of a better and more effective and efficient way—- speak with and enlighten the community council , local councillor and MSP please .

callum says:

Lesley, I appreciate your insights, though your tone leaves much to be desired. For the benefit of the reader, I will clarify my concerns about the council’s intentions for users’ data, which I had expressed in my original post in a flippant manner.

When I was completing my housing register application, I was asked to consent to sharing my details under the heading “Marketing and advertising.” The description that follows is broad and open to interpretation, which is concerning.

The original consent request reads: “Would you agree to your details being passed on to housing developers to possibly provide more housing options?”

However, a guidance document produced by the council in July 2024 suggests that this consent extends to “providers,” a term that is quite vague.

The document states: “As well as holding your information on our register for social rented housing, we can also pass on your details to other housing developers and providers who have housing of the size and type you want, in areas that you are interested in.”

While you’ve explained that the council might share such information to help third-party developers assess eligibility for their own housing options (partly funded by the council), the website’s wording is far from clear. Neither the original consent request nor the guidance document explains, as clearly as you have, the benign intention behind this data sharing—data sharing that, I remind you, is headlined “Marketing and advertising.”

As it stands, the checkbox suggests the information could be used for marketing and advertising purposes, raising concerns about potential monetisation. Can you confirm that this is not—and would never be—the case? With what authority might you state this?

Regarding the local opposition, seems you have an understanding of that situation. Although the full story is more despicable than anyone would ever believe.

I hope this response better explains my perspective on the “consent request” point. I will not countenance your condescension in relation to the other issues.

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