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Rent affordability and safety among Scottish regulator’s focus in annual risk assessment
The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) has put rent affordability and tenant safety at the top of the list of risks it will focus on within housing associations, its annual risk assessment has revealed.
Other priorities include service quality, homelessness, the quality and maintenance of homes, and the provision of Traveller sites.
For housing associations specifically, good governance and financial health will also be a focus.
In October, the SHR wrote to social landlords in Scotland to warn them over tenant safety issues, after being forced to increase their engagement with several providers over issues, including the management of asbestos and electrical safety.
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The warning came a week after Scottish associations submitted their first ever annual assurance statements to the SHR.
Introduced as part of a new regulatory framework in April, the statements are submitted by boards to assure the regulator that their organisation is compliant with regulatory standards, or to disclose any areas where it needs to improve.
Helen Shaw, assistant director of regulation at the SHR, said: “This year, for the first time in our annual risk assessment, we will take into account each landlord’s own view of its compliance with regulatory requirements, as set out in their annual assurance statements.
“The statements will help us ensure social landlords continue to deliver good-quality homes and services for their tenants and other service users.
“Tenant and resident safety, rent affordability and value for money all remain important priorities in our assessment of risk this year.
“We will continue to have a strong focus on how local authorities meet their duties to provide homes for people who need them and ensure people are not spending too long in temporary accommodation.
“We will also focus on how social landlords deliver for Gypsy/Travellers and the need for landlords to meet the minimum standards for the people who use their sites.”
