Consultations
Regulator launches consultation on the future of social housing regulation in Scotland
The Scottish Housing Regulator is consulting on proposals for how it regulates social housing in Scotland. It is inviting tenants, landlords and others with an interest in its work to give their views by 15 December.
In its proposals, the Regulator explains how it will continue to safeguard and promote the interests of current and future tenants, people who are homeless and others who use social landlords’ services.
A key proposal would see the Regulator introduce a new provision to its statutory guidance to allow the Regulator to require landlords to provide explicit assurance in the Annual Assurance Statement (AAS) on a specific issue or issues.
The Regulator also proposes changes to strengthen the emphasis in its Regulatory Framework on social landlords listening to tenants and service users, to make it clearer when a social landlord is non-compliant, and to initiate a comprehensive review of the Annual Return on the Charter which it will consult on next year.
George Walker, the Regulator’s Chair, said “Our proposals reflect the feedback from stakeholders on our discussion paper from earlier this year. Since then we’ve continued to discuss our ideas at meetings and events, to develop and test our thinking.
“Overall, stakeholders have told us that in general the current Regulatory Framework works well and remains relevant and appropriate. We’ve also seen a clear appetite from those involved in social housing for a period of stability and for changes to be kept to a minimum. There was also general support from tenants, landlords, investors and representative bodies for the approach that we set out in the discussion paper and for the changes we proposed.
“Thank you to everyone who has shared their views so far. This has been a really constructive discussion, and your feedback has been invaluable. The draft Regulatory Framework and guidance we are now proposing have been shaped by your feedback, and will continue to be informed by your responses to this consultation.”
The Regulator will use the consultation feedback to develop its final Regulatory Framework and guidance which it will publish in February 2024 and implement on 1 April 2024.
Rented Sector Reform: Landlord and Tenant Engagement Questionnaire & Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 Update
Rented Sector Reform
As set out in this year’s Programme for Government, the First Minister reaffirmed our commitment to delivering a New Deal for Tenants by creating new tenants’ rights and powers for the introduction of a system of long term rent controls for the private rented sector. To support that, and to continue our engagement with stakeholders across landlord, tenant and investor groups, we have launched an engagement questionnaire seeking to ask landlords and tenants a range of questions on our proposed reforms to the rented sector.
The questionnaire can be accessed via Citizen Space, the Scottish Government’s consultation platform, and will be open to responses for 4 weeks, closing on Friday 27 October. You can access it here:
https://consult.gov.scot/better-homes-division/rented-sector-reform-landlord-and-tenant
A supporting paper, providing more detail on our current proposals for a New Deal for Tenants, has been published to help landlords and tenants who wish to respond to the questionnaire.
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 came into force in October 2022 and introduced extra protections for tenants. The Act aims to protect tenants by temporarily:
- restricting private sector landlords from increasing the amount of rent they can charge private sector tenants;
- placing certain restrictions on enforcement of evictions from residential tenancies in both the private and social rented sectors; and
- balancing these restrictions with safeguards for those private landlords who may be facing particular cost pressures or financial hardship
The rent cap applies to most tenants in the private rented sector.
The rent cap was able to be expired in the social sector following a voluntary agreement being reached on rent setting with the sector.
The rent cap was able to be suspended in the purpose built student accommodation sector due to evidence that the rent setting process for the academic year meant that the rent cap had minimal impact.
The evictions protections continue to apply across all sectors.
The Scottish Parliament has approved a final six month extension of the Act, meaning that the following measures will be in place until 31 March 2024 at the latest:
most in-tenancy private sector rent increases will continue to be capped at 3% for any 12-month period;
- enforcement of evictions will continue to be paused for six months for most tenants, except in a number of specified circumstances; and
- private sector landlords who may be facing particular cost pressures or financial hardship can apply for approval to increase rent by up to 6% to help cover certain increases in costs in a specified time period where these costs can be evidenced
You can view more information on the measures here:
The Scottish Social Housing Charter 2022
The Charter helps to improve the quality and value of services provided by social landlords in Scotland. It sets the standards and outcomes that all social landlords should aim to achieve when performing their housing activities.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-social-housing-charter-november-2022/documents/
scottish-social-housing-charterRent Setting and Affordability Survey for Tenants
TPAS Scotland and The Regional Networks have come together to consult with tenants and landlords on how social housing rent is set in Scotland.
This is the tenants version.
We would appreciate you giving your views by filling in the enclosed survey to help identify how landlords are setting rent, what rent setting best practice looks like, and how tenants can get more involved in the rent setting process.
The survey should take less than ten minutes to complete and will cover many aspects of the rent setting processes. If you require assistance completing the survey, please call TPAS Scotland on 0800 049 5761.
Please click the blue button below to get started. Thank you for your time.
Draft Strategy Consultation Paper – “A New Deal For Tenants”
Scottish Government – “We are consulting on the draft A New Deal for Tenants – rented sector strategy, which seeks to improve accessibility, affordability choices and standards across the whole rented sector in Scotland. “
https://www.gov.scot/publications/new-deal-tenants-draft-strategy-consultation-paper/
2021-new-deal-tenants-draft-strategy-consultation-paperThe Scottish Social Housing Charter review consultation
The Scottish Social Housing Charter review consultation is now live.
It can be accessed via the following link: https://consult.gov.scot/social-housing-services/scottish-social-housing-charter-review/
The consultation will close on the 9 September 2021.
review-scottish-social-housing-charter-consultationConsultation Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing 2 indicators
The Scottish Housing Regulator is consulting on indicators to allow it to monitor and report on social landlords’ progress towards the Scottish Government’s EESSH2 milestone.
Last year the Scottish Government confirmed that the second EESSH milestone for social rented houses is to be met by 31 December 2032. The Regulator is now consulting on proposed indicators for the new milestone. Landlords would start to collect the new indicators during 2021/2022, with the first return to the Regulator in May 2022.
Michael Cameron, Chief Executive, said: “The Energy Efficiency Standard in Social Housing is a major contribution to ensuring tenants and their families have warm, affordable homes. Effective monitoring of progress towards the Standard is therefore an important priority for us. We’re keeping the number of indicators to a minimum and will aim to make the collection of the information as simple as possible.”
The Regulator is inviting views and feedback on its proposals from tenants, landlords, representative bodies, and anyone with an interest in social housing by Friday 15 January 2021.