SHR Update - May 2024

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Welcome

The year so far has remained challenging for landlords and tenants and service users. Landlords continue to operate in a difficult and complex landscape and many tenants continue to deal with financial hardship.

We've kept a strong focus on regulating to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and service users.

We've just published our new Strategy 2024-2027 which sets out what we will do to fulfil our statutory objective and functions over the next three years. We will continue to work closely with all of our stakeholders to continue to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and others by supporting social housing and delivering shared goals.

At the start of April, we published our summary report on the outcome of our annual risk assessment of social landlords and an engagement plan for each social landlord in Scotland. The publication marked the launch of our Regulatory Framework which went live from 1 April. The plans set out our regulatory requirements of each social landlord and how we will engage with it. The challenges around homelessness are again prominent in our engagement plans.

We recently set out set out our plans to review the indicators we use to monitor social landlord performance against the Scottish Social Housing Charter. We look forward to working with the advisory groups to review the indicators and develop appropriate and meaningful indicators on tenant and residence safety, including new indicators on damp and mould.

In April, we also published updated leaflets for tenants and landlords on complaints and serious concerns, we announced our programme of Annual Assurance visits to social landlords, and we updated some of our advice for social landlords.

And, we recently reported on gender equality on our board and highlighted that Scottish Ministers were recruiting to our board which closed on 6 May - thank you to everyone who applied.

Over the coming months, we will continue to work with tenants, landlords, and all of our stakeholders as we all work to tackle the challenges ahead and deliver our statutory objective to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and service users.

George Walker

Chair

George Walker, Chair

We published the outcome of our annual risk assessment published as new Regulatory Framework went live

At the start of April, we published the outcome of our annual risk assessment and our engagement plans for every social landlord in Scotland.

The publications marked the launch of our new Regulatory Framework which went live on 1 April 2024.

Our summary outcomes report set out some of the significant challenges affecting social landlords. These include the systemic failure impacting the delivery of homelessness services in some areas of Scotland, heightened risks around developing new homes and maintaining existing homes. It also highlights the challenges for social landlords in keeping rents at levels that tenants can afford while dealing with rising costs due to the impact of inflation and increased interest rates.

Our enagement plans set out what we require of each social landlord and how we will engage with it.

Read more

We set out our plans to review the Charter performance indicators

We set out plans to carry out a comprehensive review the Annual Return on Charter (ARC) during 2024/25.

The ARC is the indicators used to demonstrate landlord performance in achieving the standards and outcomes of the Scottish Social Housing Charter.

To support the review, we've set up advisory groups to work with us to review the current ARC indicators and to help us develop appropriate and meaningful indicators on tenant and residence safety, including new indicators on damp and mould.

We will consult formally on the revised ARC indicators later this year. The new ARC will be in place for collection year 2025/2026 and landlords will make their first return under the new indicators in May 2026. The existing ARC will remain in place until then.

Read more

Our three year Strategy and work plans for 2024/25

We published our three year Strategy and our work plans for 2024/25.

Our priorities will continue to be to:

delivering our statutory functions
- monitoring, assessing and reporting regularly on the performance of social landlords and the governance and financial health of RSLs
- making regulatory interventions where appropriate
- maintaining a register of social landlords
listen to tenants and service users, use their feedback to inform effective regulation, and empower them by publishing useful performance information about their landlord;
work closely with, and listen to all our stakeholders to help us understand the challenges they face, and to promote a wider understanding of the current and emerging risks that may impact on social housing; and
be an effective, efficient and open public body and contribute constructively to the Scottish Government's public service reform agenda.

Read more

Raising serious concerns: updated factsheets

We recently published two updated factsheets for tenants and landlords about raising serious concerns about a landlord.

The updates follow the launch of our new Regulatory Framework in April which enhanced the clarity of what issues tenants can bring to the Regulator and when and how this fits with other routes for tenants to complain to their landlord and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

The factsheet for tenants explains how they can raise a serious concern about a landlord, what they can expect from their landlord, and when and how they can report a concern to the Regulator.

The factsheet for social landlords sets out what we will do if a tenant or tenant representative reports a serious concern.

Read more

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Our programme of annual assurance visits to social landlords

In April, we announced a programme of visits to social landlords to discuss their Annual Assurance Statement.

This year, we will visit 13 landlords to understand their approach to preparing their Statement and how they have assured themselves about compliance with Regulatory Requirements and Standards.

In our visits, we will have a particular focus on how the landlords have assured itself about compliance with tenant and resident safety duties and for RSLs we will also focus on their approach to financial planning and the assumptions which underpin their financial plans.

Read more

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Our report on gender equality on our Board

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

Our report showed that we currently have four women and four men on our Board.

The Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 was introduced to help address the underrepresentation of women in public life. Public bodies must report on progress towards meeting the requirements.

Scottish Ministers last appointed to the Regulator’s Board in 2021. They are in the process of appointing one new member through an open recruitment process which closed for applications on 6 May 2024.

Read more

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For social landlords: Updates to some of our advisory guidance

Last month, we updated the following advisory guidance for social landlords:

The first two in the list apply to both local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs) and the remainder apply purely to RSLs.

Engagement plans

We published revised engagement plans for the following housing associations:

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Advice for landlords on preparing their Annual Assurance Statements

We wrote to all social landlords in March with advice on preparing their Annual Assurance Statements which are due in to us by 31 October 2024.

Read more

What's next?

our updated Guide to How we Regulate for tenants and service users
reports on the Scottish Social Housing Charter
our Annual Report and Accounts

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www.housingregulator.gov.scot

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