SHR Update - May 2022

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Welcome

We continue to live and work in a complex landscape.

As social landlords continue to work to build back services to tenants and tackle the backlogs that came about due to the COVID-19 restrictions, they face new and emerging challenges around climate change and decarbonisation and the wider geo-political landscape.

The rising cost of living means many tenants and their families are facing increasing financial hardship with significant pressures on their household incomes from rising costs.

It is against that background, that we published our Strategy and work plans for 2022/23 and completed our risk assessment of social landlords.

In our Strategy, we re-affirmed our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the interests of tenants, people who are or have experienced homelessness, and others who use services provided by social landlords.

In our engagement with social landlords this year, we will keep a strong focus on quality of homes, tenant and resident safety, homelessness, how social landlords recover from the pandemic, rent affordability, and value for money. We will also continue to focus on good governance and financial health in RSLs.

It was good to see some of you in person at the Chartered Institute's Housing Festival earlier this month.

We will continue to work closely with landlords, tenants and all of our stakeholders as we all work to tackle the challenges ahead.

Michael Cameron

Chief Executive

Michael Cameron, Chief Executive

Our analysis of the finances of registered social landlords

Earlier this month, we published our annual analysis of the finances of registered social landlords’ (RSLs).

It shows that RSL financial performance remains strong. This will help landlords meet the challenges ahead, but the challenges are significant.

Shaun Keenan, our Assistant Director of Regulation, said:

"Our annual analysis shows RSLs’ finances remain robust.

"That said, the financial pressures on RSLs – and tenants – are significantly greater than in recent times and are only going to increase in the coming year. RSLs need to understand these risks and pressures and have adequate financial headroom that allows them to handle what is ahead. The biggest challenge will be to do this while keeping rents at a level tenants can afford."

Read more

Outcome of our annual risk assessment of social landlords

In March, we published a summary of the outcome of our annual risk assessment of social landlords and engagement plans.

The main areas we will focus on in our engagement with social landlords this year include governance, financial management, homelessness and tenant safety.

Our engagement plans describe why we're engaging with each landlord, what they need to do, and what they need to send to us. And, they include a regulatory status for RSLs which shows whether the landlord meets Regulatory Standards.

Read more

Final COVID-19 quarterly dashboard

We recently published the final COVID-19 dashboard quarterly report.

The COVID-19 return was introduced by the Social Housing Resilience Group in March 2020 to help understand the impact of the pandemic and where support was needed.

The dashboard covers the period 1 January to 31 March 2022.

The data submitted to by social landlords shows there was a 16.5% increase compared to last quarter in the number of applications to local authorities by people experiencing or threatened with homelessness.

On 31 March 2022, 13,375 households remained in temporary accommodation; up 2% from the end of December 2021.

Both RSLs and local authorities saw small drops in their respective level of rent arrears, with an aggregate decrease from 6.5% of total rent due at the end of December 2021 to 6.2% at the end of March 2022. Local authority rent arrears continue to be higher than that of RSLs (8.48% and 4.26%, respectively).

The number of lets made by social landlords did increase slightly compared to the previous quarter, and social landlords allocated 37% of lets made to homeless households. Local authorities continue to allocate a higher proportion of lets made to homeless households compared to RSLs (45% and 29%, respectively).

Read more

Our Strategy and work plans for 2022/23

In April, we published our Strategy and a summary of our work plans for 2022/23.

The strategy sets out our main priorities including:

the quality of homes,
tenant & resident safety and the standard of sites for Gypsy/Travellers,
homelessness,
landlords' recovery from COVID-19,
rent affordability,
governance and financial health; and
being an effective public body.

Our summary of our work plans details what we are planning to do in terms of regulatory work, reports, guidance and other publications. It also includes information about how we will involve others in our work and be an effective public body.

Read more

Person planning housing regulation strategy

New team of Tenant Advisors to help keep tenants at the heart of our work

We recently appointed a new team of 12 independent volunteer Tenant Advisors to help us keep tenants at the heart of what we do.

The tenant advisors come from across Scotland. The appointments follow an open recruitment carried out by the independent tenant representative body the Tenant Information Service.

They'll give us feedback from a tenant perspective. We will use this along with the other information we gather to help inform what we do.

Read more

Factsheets for tenants & landlords: raising a concern about a landlord

We've updated our factsheets for tenants and landlords about complaints and significant performance failures.

The factsheets for tenants explain how to complain about a landlord, and about how to report a significant performance failure to us.

The factsheet for landlords explains how we will handle a report about a significant performance failure.

A significant performance failure is a serious concern about a landlord which significantly affects a number of tenants.

Read more

Updated statistical information on the Scottish Social Housing Charter

In April, we updated the statistical information we publish about social landlords performance against the Charter and updated our National Report. The changes reflect updates to the Scottish Government guidance on the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

Read more

Our contribution to gender equality on public boards

In April, we reported on our contribution towards gender equality on public boards in Scotland.

Scottish Ministers appointed two women - Marieke Dwarshuis and Lindsay Paterson - to our board in November last year. This followed a broad recruitment campaign including targeted outreach to women’s networks.

We now have four women and five men on our board.

Read more

Speeches & events

Our Chief Executive, Michael Cameron, spoke at the CIH Conference on Glasgow on 20 May.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit us at our stand at the conference!

Read Michael's speech

Jobs

We're seeking a Regulation Manager to join our team. You can find out more about the role and how to apply below. Applications close on 22 June 2022.

Apply now

What's next?

TPAS Conference in June

National Report on the Scottish Social Housing Charter & landlord reports in August.

www.housingregulator.gov.scot

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