Regulator appoints board members to housing association

The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) stepped in at Molendinar Park Housing Association, which owns and manages 582 homes, at the association’s own request, after it discovered that most of its governing body were not properly elected.

SHR has appointed four members to the association’s governing body in order to address the issue. According to the regulator’s plan, they will help Molendinar Park to commission “an independent review of its governance and financial management”.

The appointments will last six months, after which time SHR will review the association’s progress. In a regulation plan, the SHR said: “This was a serious governance failure that had been on-going for a significant period of time and which posed a serious and immediate risk to tenants’ interests.”

Christine Macleod, director of regulation (governance and performance) at the SHR, said: “We’re making these appointments to support Molendinar Park to address this serious governance failure and ensure it has a properly constituted management committee.

“The association was unable to address its issues without our intervention. It acted appropriately by reporting this to us and has been working openly and co-operatively with us.

“We will continue to engage with the association as it works, with the support of the appointees, to address this governance problem.”

The association employs nine people and had turnover of £2.15m in 2015/16. Molendinar did not comment.