Funding and Acquisitions

Most of the funding for the development will come from Bett Homes as the provider of the proposed 1,113 private houses.  The company is also financing the major road works (ultimately in full), infrastructural upgrading, land remediation, flood prevention works, park improvements to a value of around £2,000,000, community facilities (in part), new allotments, a new model boat clubhouse and subsidy on social-rented housing, all in lieu of land value to Glasgow City Council.  Although the development land has been leased by the Council to Bett Homes, the entire site remains in Council ownership until passed directly to the purchasers of houses and other property.

The proposed conversion of the former St Margaret's Polmadie Church into a community facility is being co-ordinated by the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust which is assembling a diverse funding package, in conjunction with the Oatlands Development Trust,  likely to include contributions from Glasgow City Council, Landfill Tax Credit, the Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company, Bett Homes, Historic Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund and possibly from such organisations as the European Union (ERDF) and the Big Lottery Fund.

The construction of the second and final phase of the Rutherglen Road diversion has been brought forward with loan finance from the Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company and Glasgow City Council which will be reimbursed by Bett Homes, the developer, by an agreed date.

The City Council and the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) have invested over £6,000,000 towards necessary property acquisitions and to the payment of home loss and disturbance allowances to those tenants who had to move house as a result of the regeneration proposals. Two compulsory purchase orders have been confirmed to assist with acquisition of property which has not been obtainable through voluntary means, namely:

• Regeneration of Oatlands, Glasgow Compulsory Purchase Order 2003, first advertised in July 2003, confirmed by the Scottish Ministers in May 2005 and came into full effect on 26 August 2005.  All objections to this Order, covering commercial property and areas of land with no recorded ownership title, were resolved through negotiation.
  
  
• Regeneration of Oatlands, Glasgow Housing Compulsory Purchase Order 2004, first advertised in October 2004, confirmed by the Scottish Ministers in December 2006 and eventually applied to one remaining property in September 2007.  Objections to this Order were heard at a Public Local Inquiry on 18 April 2006.

In addition, mention should be made of shared equity or 'Homestake' finance, made available by the Scottish Government via Glasgow City Council.  This enabled a substantial number of 'right-to-buy' owner-occupiers to be rehoused in new properties in Oatlands.

Below is a general view of the Oatlands site, taken back in March 2007,  looking east from the completed housing at Ritz Place towards land to be occupied by future phases.  In the foreground is the site construction compound, part of which, plus the roadway to the right, has since been replaced by allotment gardens, completed in March 2010.  These plots replace others relocated from elsewhere on the site.  In the background are the then remaining inter-war three-storey tenements at Logan Stret/Elmfoot Street prior to their demolition.

General view of Oatlands Site in March 2007, giving some idea of the scale of the site.