AS it sits on the brink of one of the most exciting times in its history, the East End of Glasgow faces big challenges.

AS it sits on the brink of one of the most exciting times in its history, the East End of Glasgow faces big challenges.

But shaking off its "sick man of Britain" tag is by far and away its greatest.

The area, which will become a huge sporting focus when Glasgow hosts the 2014 Commonwealth Games in six years' time, has the lowest life expectancy in the country - just 63 for men in Shettleston.

And it continues to suffer disproportionately from health problems associated with poverty - smoking, alcohol and drug abuse, depression and obesity.

While poverty and lifestyle have played their part, so too, say the experts, has the quality of housing.

What's in the pipeline?

EASTERHOUSE
In the next three years Wellhouse Housing Association plans to knock down 250 rundown tenements and replace them with 140 new houses, split 60/40 between rented and low-cost ownership.

Lochfield Park Housing Association is currently building 84 houses and flats on two sites, a mixture of rented, for sale and shared ownership.

Easthall Housing Co-operative is building 76 houses, with 70 more to go up later this year.

SHETTLESTON
Shettleston Housing Association is currently building 27 homes and flats, all for rent.

PARKHEAD
Parkhead Housing Association is currently building 122 new homes.

It has just completed 26 and is awaiting the green light to build 136 more.

It is also fitting 130 homes with new windows and doors and will install new heating systems into 440 next year.

GHA IN THE EAST END
GHA says it plans to spend £30million this year on various projects.

Half will be spent on upgrading the external fabric of properties, including wall insulation, cladding and re-roofing.

Around 1000 properties in the East End to benefit from kitchen and bathroom improvements.

The remainder of the investment programme involves heating and door replacement.

Figures give clear picture of health

  • Male life expectancy across the East End is 68.1 years - five years less than the Scottish average.
  • In Shettleston, men can expect to live to just 63.
  • Women live, on average to 74 - that's three years less than the national average.
  • 30% of the population are officially described as "deprived" and 25% are unemployed - the average Scottish unemployment rate is just under 5%.
  • Mortality rates from cancer and heart disease are all above average.
  • 37.5% of people smoke - the national average is 27%.
  • In some East End pockets the figure is more than 50%.
  • 32% of women smoke while pregnant - that's 8% more than the Scottish average.
  • In the last 10 years there were 264 drug deaths in the East End.
  • In the last five years there were 420 alcohol-related deaths and every year almost 2000 residents are admitted to hospital due to problems with alcohol.
  • The number of babies born with low birthweight is 62% above the national average.
  • 42% more teenage girls get pregnant than in the rest of Scotland.

Large swathes of the city may have been transformed but much of the East End has lagged behind with many residents still stuck in damp, sub-standard housing, their rundown communities plagued by anti-social behaviour.

Now there is a new determination to consign poor housing and ill-health to the past.

Health and housing experts say they are already making huge in-roads into turning it around.

Chris Cunningham is director of Shettleston Housing Association, which runs a successful private company offering cleaning and recycling services employing local people.

He said: "I've worked in Shettleston for 25 years and it has changed, and is continuing to change - you only have to listen to the number of different accents on the streets - and this is a good thing.

"The positive changes that have taken place in Dennistoun over the last decade are spreading eastwards.

"The Commonwealth Games will help this process, but it was happening anyway.

"The problems are very real, but the future is positive."

Those on the ground like Chris say it will take changes in approach that puts communities back in control of their destinies.

Calton councillor George Redmond said: "Men in Shettleston have the lowest life expectancy in the country and can live around 14 years less than their counterparts in the wealthiest parts of Glasgow.

"What makes this doubly sad is the lifestyle they will have led in those 63 years - many out of work, with long-term health problems.

"We need to do everything we can to improve that, and give families lives to aspire to."

Health, social work and housing services are being integrated much more than ever before with the aim of achieving results.

Anne Mitchell is head of the East End Community Health Care Partnership, which has been delivering services at special centres throughout the East End for two years.

She said: "I am optimistic that by using the right approach we can gradually improve the health of people in the area.

"For us it is all about linking up services and providing early intervention whenever we can.

"Often there is a history of ill health and worklessness in a family that has been passed down through the generations.

"But we're trying to tackle this poverty of aspiration.

"Our Keep Well initiative targets people aged 45-64 who don't normally go to the doctor.

"We can hopefully anticipate their health and social problems and deal with them at an early stage.

"We also offer this service on an outreach basis, knocking on the doors of those who don't reply to our letters.

"We can give them time and access to services, we can refer them to health professionals."

She said the focus of their projects included tackling infant and child nutrition, alcohol and drug problems, mental health issues, unemployment and obesity.

"We're going into schools, health centres and surgeries and we're expanding and linking services wherever possible.

"It's all about a holistic approach to health and wellbeing, and having an open door policy.

"But we're not just delivering to individuals, we support communities so they can help themselves."

Hand in hand with work being done on health is a joined-up approach on tackling the housing issues.

Small, locally based housing associations such as Shettleston, Parkhead, Blairtummock and Wellhouse are building and renovating hundreds of homes throughout the East End.

Glasgow Housing Association, the city's biggest landlord, says it has spent almost £90million in the East End over the last five years, and has plans to invest millions more.

But there is a recognition that successful communities are about more than just warm houses - they are about the people who live in them, and their problems.

Joe Williamson, director of Wellhouse Housing Association in Easterhouse, said: "For us it's all about fostering communities after decades of neglect and helping people make the best of themselves.

"It's about positive psychology, trying to instill people with a feeling that they can change their lives, making them more confident and optimistic about the future."

He added: "We employ specialist staff to work with people on an individual basis.

"That's where the money needs to go - smallscale, intense services delivered at the heart of the community.

"It will take time, and it is currently happening too slowly, but this approach can work.

"We can work with teenagers, young mums, the isolated, the unemployed, the elderly, but we need resources to be channelled at local level."