The award, sponsored by the Scottish Government, is aimed at landlords and their tenants who can demonstrate excellence in working collaboratively on carrying out effective scrutiny or embedding scrutiny in the organisation’s culture which has led to positive change, improved service outcomes, or enhanced tenants’ lives.

Link chief executive, Jon Turner, said: “I am delighted Link’s Tenant Scrutiny Panel has received national and industry recognition by winning this coveted award.

“It is really pleasing that their hard work and innovation have been recognised by the Chartered Institute of Housing.

“I hope the success encourages the panel to continue striving for excellence in the varied and vital scrutiny projects they undertake within Link Housing.”

Link Tenant Scrutiny Panel chairperson, Lindsay Anderson, added: “We felt that it was important to continue scrutinising services during the pandemic. We inspected Link’s Advice Service to assess how the pandemic had affected service delivery and what impact this had on tenants when the service had to be delivered remotely.

“We gathered information by interviewing staff and support agencies and talking to tenants who had used the service. To assess value for money, we analysed cost, performance, and satisfaction information for the six-month period before the lockdown and the six-month period after the lockdown.

“Despite a dramatic rise in the number of tenants needing support, we demonstrated evidence that the Advice Team had improved performance through hybrid working, whilst continuing to deliver a compassionate and vital service.”

The Chartered Institute of Scotland Housing Awards 2022 took place on Thursday, October 27, in Glasgow. The full list of winners can be found here.