IN the education system of yesteryear it would constitute a pass - just. Nothing to crow about, but the student who received a C grade would be comforted in the knowledge he had not been damned by failure.

In the first in-depth, independent assessment of its performance in its four years in existence, Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) has received that C.

Communities Scotland, the housing regulator, in its two-month evaluation, felt the organisation had done enough since it inherited 80,559 houses and 1610 employees from Glasgow City Council in 2003 to have its performance labelled "fair".

As the report dropped yesterday morning, there is little doubt GHA staff were underlining paragraphs noting how it was delivering on the promises made to tenants four years ago, that it is still a young organisation operating in challenging circumstances and that it has shown a strong commitment to improving.

There will also be few in the organisation who would quibble with the view they are constantly working in an atmosphere of "lingering bitterness" over the failure so far to break up GHA into dozens of smaller bodies.

And there will be a fair amount of glee that, despite the lack of even any sign of a break-up and the insistence that resolution of the issue is core to finding the way forward, Communities Scotland insists "all parties need to move away from a rigid understanding of how this can happen".

But outside of GHA there is no shortage of alternative interpretations of the report, ranging from "a wake-up call" to "damning" to "a fudge".

Anything above a failure (and intervention by the government or Communities Scotland, whose chief executive Angiolina Foster once headed the association) was, some claim, a result for GHA.

It is also not just the conspiracy theorists who say it was convenient that an often harshly critical report did not call for draconian intervention. Most observers of GHA over the years accept no-one has a cost-effective solution to its problems. The expectation now is that it will be used to bait Wendy Alexander, one of GHA's architects and now Labour leader at Holyrood, with all blame for any mess laid at her party's door. Beyond that, few are prepared to guess.

Crucially, it has been claimed, the key recommendation of "a fundamental review of GHA's purpose and onward business strategy" suggests failure in all but words.

GHA's top tier of management, whenever the vexed issue of its promised break-up is raised, are quick to point out that the vast majority of tenants do not care one iota who actually manages their homes. Warm, comfortable and safe housing are their primary concerns.

So-called second stage transfer (SST), they insist, is only of importance to a handful of politically motivated agitators and empire builders within smaller housing organisations.

Indeed, the report says that GHA's success is too often measured solely against whatever commitment there has been to supporting these LHOs becoming landlords in their own right "at the exclusion of all else".

That being the case, its critics claim GHA must be seriously concerned that one of the main failings uncovered is the failure to "meet all its statutory and regulatory requirements on gas safety and managing asbestos".

It is also considered "poor" at handling complaints from its dissatisfied tenants, was slow to understand the issues facing homeowners sharing closes with GHA tenants, has a poor "and worsening" rent collection rate, shoddy performance in letting empty houses and "must act quickly to establish strong and effective control of its response repairs service".

Chief executive Taroub Zahran would also have difficulty in blaming external factors for GHA's failure to achieve "value for money" or its "capacity and ability to improve significantly in all areas" where weaknesses were uncovered.

Last night, she was understandably accentuating the positives. She said: "Most importantly, this report says we're delivering on our promises to tenants and tenant participation. We've been getting feedback on the inspection and are already working on its recommendations. Staff and tenants have all been involved in this and will continue to be.

"The report recognises we are a young organisation, meeting huge challenges but delivering. This is a solid foundation.

"We want to improve upon a C, but it is a good start. It's helpful the report recognises the difficulties in SST and we will move on that as quickly as is possible."

She added: "Since the inspection we've made the gas and asbestos safety issues a priority. We've brought in specialist staff and reduced the number of properties affected."

Karen Watt, director of regulation and inspection at Communities Scotland, said: "Set against its strengths, GHA also has a number of areas, some significant, where it must improve."

Glasgow SNP MSP Sandra White, a long-standing opponent of GHA, asked: "How, on one hand, can GHA be delivering to tenants, yet not on repairs, asbestos or gas safety? That makes little sense. There should be government intervention to look at ways of going forward. On the basis of this report GHA shouldn't be trusted to do that alone."

Her fellow Glasgow SNP MSP, Bob Doris, said: "This is a wake-up call for GHA with regard to how it treats complaints and deals with owner occupiers struggling to pay huge bills dumped on them by the GHA."

Fraser Stewart, of the New Gorbals Housing Association, has been one of the most vocal critics of the failure to move on SST. He said: "I'm obviously disappointed. This review should lead to a serious consideration of community ownership."

GHA must act quickly'

Recommendations GHA should initiate and lead a fundamental review of its purpose and onward business strategy. This review should include considering the future of second stage transfer. In doing this, it must better understand the views of its tenants and build on the level of engagement it has had with in decisions about homes and communities. It must involve stakeholders. Once it has determined its longer-term business strategy, GHA should comprehensively review its governance arrangements to ensure that they support the organisation's emerging direction and future business strategy. GHA should develop its capacity to manage its investment programmes, get the most from its partnering arrangements and ensure it is always clear and open when procuring investment and contracts. GHA must act quickly to establish strong and effective control of its response repairs service and to meet all its legal responsibilities for gas safety and managing asbestos. GHA needs to ensure that its budgets are realistic and that it focuses much more on value for money and identifying real savings. GHA should develop a clear and realistic strategy for improving its performance in collecting rent and letting empty properties. GHA should ensure that the current review of its work with owners delivers real improvements in services.