The guidance will come into effect on April 1.
The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) has published its new regulatory framework and statutory guidance for social landlords.
The new framework will go live from April 1 2024, setting out how SHR will regulate social landlords in Scotland. This follows an extensive consultation by the Regulator with its stakeholders.
In response to the feedback from stakeholders, the Regulator has maintained much from the previous framework. It has introduced a new provision to allow it to require landlords to provide explicit assurance in the Annual Assurance Statement (AAS) on a specific issue or issues.
It has also strengthened the emphasis in its regulatory framework on social landlords listening to tenants and service users, made it clearer when a social landlord is non-compliant and has committed to a comprehensive review of the annual return on the charter which it will consult on later this year. It will work with landlords to develop proposals for this review.
The regulator will also work with tenants to develop a guide on how it regulates for tenants and service users which it will publish soon.
Alongside its new framework and statutory guidance, the Regulator has also published its response to the consultation which gives an overview of the main changes and an independent analysis of the consultation responses.
George Walker, the SHR’s chair, said “I am delighted to announce the publication of our new regulatory framework. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to share views through our consultation and discussion paper. Your feedback has helped shape the new framework.
“Overall, stakeholders told us that our previous framework worked well and remained relevant and appropriate. We also saw a clear appetite for stability and for changes to be kept to minimum.
“Our new framework keeps a focus on our statutory objective to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants, people who are homeless, factored owners and Gypsy/Travellers at the heart of our work.
“We will continue to publish easy-to-access and easy-to-use information for tenants about their landlord’s performance and to promote a culture of assurance, openness and transparency.
“We will keep a strong focus on tenant and resident safety. We will establish an appropriate working group, or groups, to work with us to consider all of the indicators we use to monitor landlords’ performance against the Scottish Social Housing Charter. We will also work with these groups to develop appropriate indicators for tenants and resident safety, including on damp and mould.
“We will continue to support landlords to get the assurance they need that their organisation is well-run and so delivers good outcomes for tenants, people who are homeless and others who use their services.”
