The first week in September saw the publication of two important documents in the UK social housing sector. First was the Scottish Housing Regulator’s (SHR) National Report on the Scottish Social Housing Charter which contains analysis of social landlord performance in Scotland for 2023/24. Apart from SHR’s own press release announcing the publication of the report there has been little media coverage.

Second, the final Grenfell Inquiry Report was published and quite rightly has been the focus of national headlines in print and online media. As we have known for a very long time the tenants and residents of Grenfell tower were badly let down by all the organisations that were legally obliged to provide safe, secure homes for them to live in.

Why am I linking these two publications together?

It seems a very long time ago now, but the origins of the Scottish Social Housing Charter began in the Scottish Government with the setting up of a Tenant Priorities Working Group – and I represented the Tenants Information Service (TIS), my employer at the time – on this working group.

Along with my TIS colleagues and with TPAS Scotland too, we then facilitated Scottish Government roadshows across the country with a “blank sheet of paper” approach to find out what tenants and housing staff thought should be included in the new Charter. After several attempts at getting the outcomes and standards right, the shiny new Charter was launched by the Scottish Government in 2012 and the first year of Annual Return on the Charter (ARC) data was submitted by landlords to the new Scottish Housing Regulator for 2013/14.  SHR then published its first analysis report in March 2015.

That means that last week’s report for 2023/24 data signifies a decade of Charter data being submitted to SHR.

Should that not have received more attention in the Scottish sector?

In the same week that the devastating results of ignoring tenants and residents’ concerns in Grenfell are so apparent to the world how has the Charter impacted the sector in Scotland?

Its purpose was to improve the outcomes and standards of services delivered to tenants, homeless people, gypsy/travellers and others such as applicants and factored owners.

SHR’s analysis includes:

Gypsy/Travellers

“Satisfaction amongst Gypsy/Travellers decreased to 66% in 2023/24 from 76% in 2022/23. This is the lowest level of satisfaction amongst Gypsy/Travellers since the introduction of the Charter”

Factored Owners

“Satisfaction amongst factored owners has fallen for the second consecutive year to 60%. This is the lowest level of satisfaction among factored customers since the introduction of the Charter.”

Homelessness

“We are of the view that there is systemic failure in the services provided to people who are homeless by some LAs and heightened risk of systemic failure in others.”

However

“Overall, social landlords let 22,694 homes to people whom LAs had assessed as homeless, up by 8% on 2022/23”

Tenant Satisfaction

Tenant satisfaction remained high at 87% in 2023/24. For RSLs, there was a slight increase to 88% from 87% in 2022/23; and a decrease among LA tenants from 83% to 80%.

The annual headlines in SHR’s national Charter reports have focused on tenant satisfaction levels so how has this progressed in the first ten years of the Charter?

It would appear that while progress has been made with issues like the quality of homes over the last ten years in Scotland – with more homes now meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), the dial has not moved on how tenants feel overall about their landlords’ performance.  We can point to the cost-of-living crisis affecting households and high inflation, higher interest rates and skills shortages affecting social landlords but is it really any different from 2013/14?

In July 2013, PWC published its UK Economic Outlook with the heading “Is the UK housing market on the road to recovery?”

It contained the quote: 

“A lack of affordable mortgage availability remains the biggest constraint on housing supply, something government now clearly understands and is looking to address … Building the homes the country desperately needs can be a key driver of economic activity. Government must be praised for its attempts to stimulate [housing market] activity but must also be wary to get the details right.”

Stewart Baseley, Home Builders Federation, 20 March 2013

In 2013, the Help to Buy Scheme was introduced as a £3.5 billion package with the aim of helping up to 74,000 homes buyers and boosting the construction industry.

And that was before Brexit, the Ukraine war, the 45 days of the Truss government and even before Grenfell.

So, in ten years, it feels like we’ve been a bit stuck somehow.  So, what do we need now?

We know the pace of change in the public sector can be slow but in some places tenants and residents can’t wait another 10 years for investment in their existing homes or for the opportunity of a new home, whether that is rented or bought.

We need the new government to deliver on the 50+ Grenfell Inquiry recommendations as well as its planning reform and house building targets.

We need to know what its plans are for the “professionalisation” of the housing sector.

We need social landlords to embrace change, to put people and place at the heart of policy making by focusing on their tenants and their homes.

We need well-run, financially robust social landlords with governing boards who properly understand their health and safety responsibilities.

We need to never have another Grenfell tragedy in the UK.

Here at ARK Consultancy our mission is “to support the affordable housing sector to achieve its goals and deliver the high quality homes and services that residents deserve”.  

If you’d like to chat about how we can help your organisation then please email kwells@arkconsultancy.co.uk.