The revised practice guidance will update and replace existing practice guidance on allocations and suspensions and take into account new provisions included in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014.

The revised guidance will reflect every day practice, and will support social landlords to review their allocations policy in line with the revised legal framework, while keeping the existing flexibility to reflect local circumstances and address local needs.

CIH Scotland is now inviting practitioners from across Scotland’s housing sector to get in touch via an online survey and share examples of how their organisation currently deals with different aspects of allocations and suspensions.

It is also seeking feedback from practitioners on how landlords are intending to make use of new powers in the 2014 Act – as well as on any specific issues that would be helpful to be covered in the revised guidance.

Ashley Campbell, policy and practice manager at CIH Scotland, said: “By issuing this online survey, our aim is to make sure that the new guidance reflects every day practice, helping social landlords to review their allocations policies and make decisions. We are looking for practitioners to share examples of how their organisation deals with different aspects of allocations and suspensions, and we want to hear about a wide range of practice including every day scenarios and specific issues organisations may have faced and how these were resolved.

“In addition, we are also interested in hearing about how housing organisations might be considering making use of new powers, such as the ability to take home ownership into account when making allocation decisions. We also want to know if there are any aspects of allocations and suspensions policy that practitioners are unsure about and would like to see addressed in the revised practice guidance.”

Ashley Campbell added: “As we are looking for a variety of examples, practitioners who have more than one to share should feel free to complete the survey as many times as they like. They can also send us additional or supporting documents by email.”

The online survey can be accessed here and will be open until March 21. Further information about the survey or the revised guidance is available by emailing allocations@craigforth.co.uk.