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The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) is consulting on temporary changes to its regulatory framework during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proposals include publishing temporary advisory guidance to help social landlords meet the October 2020 deadline for their annual assurance statements, extending the time landlords have to publish information on their charter performance to December and publishing the next round of engagement plans by the end of March 2021.
The consultation paper said that regulatory bodies, tenants and others have faced “unprecedented challenges” since the outbreak of COVID-19 and that the SHR is looking at how it can “flex and adapt” its regulatory approach to continue to fulfil its statutory objective.
The SHR previously postponed publication of the engagement plans from March 2020 to help support landlords in their immediate COVID-19 response.
Last week, it issued a new tenant engagement plan to involve service users in its work.
Scottish social landlords have also been submitting monthly reports to the SHR since the outbreak after the regulator introduced new measures in April.
Michael Cameron, chief executive of the SHR, said: “We’re proposing some modest and temporary changes to our regulatory framework so that we can continue to adapt our approach to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Over the coming weeks, we will be engaging with tenant groups and tenant representative bodies, landlords, landlord representatives, and others interested in our work to discuss our proposals.
“We will use their feedback to ensure we can continue to respond to the challenges COVID-19 brings.”
The regulator is inviting views and feedback on its proposals from landlords, tenants and others with an interest in its work by Friday 14 August 2020.
The Regulator of Social Housing in England previously halted in-depth assessments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and has also introduced monthly surveys examining its operational impacts.
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