You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Scottish Housing Regulator warns sector over development risk
The Scottish Housing Regulator has warned the social housing sector over increasing development risk.
In its annual assessment of the risks facing Scottish housing associations, the regulator said a number of landlords are embarking on “sizeable development programmes to build new homes, often after a significant period of time since they last developed”.
It added: “We are therefore planning to engage with a number of landlords to get assurance about how they plan to manage the risks associated with development.”
The Scottish government still wants 50,000 affordable homes to be built in Scotland between 2016 and 2021 and has put a large amount of funding behind this ambition.
READ MORE
In January, it announced it would increase affordable housing funding by £70m to £826m in its 2019/20 Budget.
Despite this, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations has called on it to go further and confirm funding beyond 2021, when the current parliament ends.
The government is currently consulting on its plans post-2021 and warned in a consultation document last year that “the current level of spend would be challenging to sustain”.
Today also saw the Scottish Housing Regulator implement its new regulatory framework.
The framework includes the publication of a new engagement plan for every registered social landlord (RSL) in Scotland. According to the regulator, the main areas of engagement will be financial health, governance and delivery of services for tenants and service users.
The new framework will also mean the regulator publishes a regulatory status for each landlord and requires them to publish annual assurance statements outlining their compliance with regulations.
Michael Cameron, chief executive at the regulator, said: “We want to see well-run social landlords that deliver good services and good outcomes for tenants, people who are homeless and gypsy/travellers. And our new regulatory framework has been designed to promote openness, transparency and self-assurance.
“Landlords will soon be thinking about preparing their first annual assurance statements. These are due by October. We’ve published guidance and frequently asked questions to support landlords to do this.
“We will consider the annual assurance statements as part of our risk assessment in the coming year. We will publish a regulatory status for every RSL from April 2020.”
