SHR Update - May 2021

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Welcome

It is hard to believe that it has been over a year since we first went into lockdown. Many of us will now be reflecting on the past year and thinking about what's next for the future of social housing and its regulation.

Scotland's social landlords were amongst the first on to the frontline in local communities, supporting their tenants and residents through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We know that social landlords will continue to face demands and challenges as we continue to move out of the pandemic.

We have just completed our risk assessment which sets the focus of the engagement we will have this year.

We will keep a strong focus on the impact of COVID-19 on social landlords services. We will also focus on homelessness, rent affordability, and tenant and resident safety, financial health and good governance of RSLs.

Our recent analysis of the finances of RSLs shows that sector finances remain robust and this stands them in good stead to continue to tackle the challenges ahead.

We will continue to work with tenants, landlords, the Social Housing Resilience Group, Scottish Government and all of our stakeholders as we work to continue to safeguard the interests of tenants and service users.

Finally, I would like to welcome all the new MSPs elected to the Scottish Parliament. I hope you find this update on our work informative. Our website provides more information on our role and how we regulate.

Michael Cameron

Chief Executive

Michael Cameron, Chief Executive

Outcome of our annual risk assessment

At the end of March, we published the outcome of our annual risk assessment of social landlords and updated engagement plans for all RSLs.

The main areas of our engagement this year will be the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness, rent affordability, and tenant and resident safety.

This year, for the first time, our engagement plans include a regulatory status for each RSL which describes whether a landlord complies with Regulatory Standards.

Our analysis of the finances of RSLs

We published our national analysis of the finances of RSLs.

Our report found that most RSLs have coped well over the last year with the short term financial impact of the pandemic and have maintained a strong aggregate financial position. But, RSLs need to plan to respond to the risks and challenges ahead.

Shaun Keenan, Assistant Director of Financial Regulation said:

"At March 2020 most RSLs were managing their resources to ensure their financial well-being. So, RSLs entered the pandemic in a strong financial position and, based on the 2020/21 monthly returns, have coped well over the last year with the short term financial impact of the pandemic.

"That said, RSLs are likely to face considerable challenges as they recover out of the pandemic in managing their resources to ensure their financial well-being, while maintaining rents at a level that tenants can afford to pay."

What we will do during 2021/22

We published a summary of what we will do during 2021-2022.

This year we will support the national COVID-19 response alongside carrying out a programme of planned regulatory activities.

Our regulatory work will focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness, rent affordability, tenant and resident safety, along with RSLs' financial health and good governance.

Latest COVID-19 dashboard

Our latest COVID-19 monthly dashboard shows falling rent arrears and an increase in lets being made and homeless applications.

Our dashboard reports are designed to help the Scottish Government and social landlords understand the impact on the COVID-19 pandemic and to support the work of the Social Housing Resilience Group.

The March dashboard shows that RSL rent arrears have fallen to their lowest level since we started collecting the monthly returns in April 2020. Local authority arrears have also decreased, and at an aggregate level, rent arrears are at their lowest since May 2020.

The number of lets made in March was the highest reported by social landlords since the monthly returns started, with lets to people experiencing homelessness surpassing 2,000 for the first time.

Our statutory intervention

Thistle Housing Association

We ended our statutory intervention at Thistle Housing Association and removed it from the register of social landlords after it completed its transfer to Sanctuary Scotland.

Fairfield Housing Association

We continued our statutory intervention at Fairfield Housing Association.

We will continue to engage with Fairfield as it continues to develop its proposals to transfer its homes to Kingdom Housing Association.

Advice for governing body members during COVID-19

We've updated our advice for RSL governing body members.

The provisions on general meetings introduced by the Corporate Governance Act 2020 have ended.

We've updated our advice to reflect the change to support governing bodies as they consider the arrangements for their AGM or SGM.

Our refreshed complaints procedure

We recently published our new complaints handling procedures, in line with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s updated model.

The procedures explain what a complaint is, how we will deal with it, and how quickly we will respond.

We also updated the information on our website which lets people know how to give feedback or make a complaint.

Timescales for social landlords' regulatory returns

We've reverted to the original timescales for annual regulatory returns after extending them in March to respond to COVID-19.

From April, social landlords will submit quarterly returns on the impact of COVID-19. The quarterly returns will replace the monthly returns landlords had ben submitting since March last year. Social landlords will submit their first quarterly return on 20 July 2021.

These timescales follow consultation with the Social Housing Resilience Group and other stakeholders.

We wrote to all social landlords in March to inform them of the timescales.

We'll keep the timescales under review to respond to significant developments in COVID-19.

We've set out the information landlords should submit in their first quarterly return on the impact of COVID-19

We wrote to social landlords this month to set out the information they should provide in their first quarterly COVID-19 return.

We'll keep collecting the same data that we've asked landlords for since March last year. And we'll collect additional information about lets and rental income.

This follows consultation with the Social Housing Resilience Group (SHRG) and other stakeholders.

We'll use use the data landlords submit to produce quarterly reports to support the SHRG and the Scottish Government in the national response to the pandemic.

Updated Charter Technical Guidance for social landlords

We've updated our technical guidance and Frequently Asked Questions to support social landlords to make their Annual Return on the Scottish Social Housing Charter by 31 May 2021

Our Chief Executive, Michael Cameron, speaks at the SHARE annual conference

Our Chief Executive, Michael Cameron, recently spoke to Chairs of RSLs at the SHARE annual conference at the end of March.

Michael reflected on the past year and discussed what's next for social housing and its regulation.

What's next...

We will now publish our monthly COVID-19 dashboard quarterly. Landlords will make their first quarterly return in July.
Our Director of Regulation, Ian Brennan, will speak at annual Social Housing Finance Conference online in May.
Scottish Ministers will begin recruitment to fill two vacancies on our board in the Summer.

www.housingregulator.gov.scot

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