The guidance shares advice and lessons learned from real-life compliance reviews for landlords to consider when carrying out their own reviews, particularly in preparation for submitting their Annual Assurance Statement. The guidance is intended to sit alongside and complement the Scottish Federation of Housing Association’s Social Landlord Self-Assurance Toolkit.

The Regulator commissioned Paul Rydquist, an experienced statutory manager, to produce the guidance to give an illustration of an effective way to carry out a review of compliance with Regulatory Standards. It shares the lessons the author has learned from his role carrying out compliance reviews.

It also includes the lessons the Regulator has learned from its engagement with RSLs about compliance reviews. These emphasise the importance of governing body members playing a full role in the review, of being ready to recognise any significant weaknesses found, and carefully planning the delivery of identified improvements to deliver sustainable change and improvement.

Helen Shaw, director of regulation, said: “It is for each RSL to decide how it will approach reviewing and demonstrating compliance with Regulatory Standards to support the submission of its Annual Assurance Statement. We’ve published this guidance to help support RSLs to carry out their own compliance reviews as part of their self-assurance work. We hope RSLs find the lessons learned, advice, and tried and tested tools in this guidance helpful.”