Collaboration key to supporting communities to turn places into positive spaces

Keep Scotland Beautiful has brought together representatives from a range of organisations active in the social housing sector for a round table focusing on the benefits and wider impacts working collaboratively to deliver good local environmental quality for local people, communities and businesses.  The event held in Glasgow on 28 April was hosted by the Wheatley Group and well attended by key people working in the sector.

Those attending had an opportunity to network, share knowledge and experience and make new connections, the agenda included an overview of the key findings from the Scottish Litter Survey 2024 from Scott Edgar of Diffley Partnership.

77% of those in Scotland’s least affluent neighbourhoods view litter as a problem locally compared to 68% of those from Scotland’s most affluent areas.

This stat highlights the stark challenges facing the social housing sector, which were touched on in more detail by keynote speakers, Stephen Gray of The Wheatley Group and Lorraine Smith, Queens Cross Housing Association. 

Both explored the challenges they faced to improve local environmental quality, and  also highlighted the benefits of working with Keep Scotland Beautiful to improve use of data, focus resources on making a real difference, increase engagement with staff and customers and outlined some of the wider benefits for their organisations.

Our Development Manager Katie Murray wrapped up the event with a presentation highlighting the need for a collaborative approach to tackle the environmental challenges facing our more deprived communities when it comes to cleanliness standards, and the support that #TeamKSB can provide from delivering Climate Emergency Training, to carrying out local environmental quality audits to environmental management workshops and communications support.   

Paul Wallace, our Head of Operations, who led the event commented, “This informative roundtable explored the challenges and opportunities which social housing and local authority housing providers are facing in 2025.  It explored their role in working with their customers to make the properties they manage and communities they serve cleaner, greener and more sustainable.

“We were able to learn from the sector as participants shared their concerns, identified opportunities, at a strategic and operational level, and look forward to building further collaborations with the sector in the years to come.”

Find out more about our work to support the social housing sector and others to combat climate change, tackle litter and waste and improve communities.