The Scottish Housing Regulator has published a new report highlighting the importance of landlords gathering, assessing, and reporting on equalities.

The Regulator’s thematic inquiry found that many landlords are doing well in collecting equalities information about their tenants, applicants, governing body members, and staff. Others have significant scope for improvement.

‘Use of equalities and diversity information by Scottish social landlords’ looks at how social landlords in Scotland collect and use information about equality and diversity and how they perform against the Scottish Government’s Social Housing Charter standard on equalities.

The Regulator carried out survey work with social landlords and analysed national performance information. It asked landlords about how they go about collecting good equalities information and how they use that information.

Christine Macleod, director of governance and performance, said: “In this report we highlight the importance of all landlords collecting, assessing, and reporting equalities information. It is the first step to gaining a better understanding of, and being able to communicate more effectively with, tenants and other service users.

“We’ve shared some positive examples of social landlords using different ways to collect good quality equalities information. We’ve also made a number of recommendations for landlords to consider when applying the equalities standard in the Scottish Social Housing Charter. Without good information landlords may be unable to fully understand and take account of the equalities implications of their decisions.”

The positive practice highlighted in the Regulator’s report includes mandatory equality, diversity, and inclusion training for staff as well as clear communication with tenants so that they understand how equalities information will be used to improve services.

The Regulator’s recommendations include that landlords should review how they can improve the quantity and quality of the information they collect and how they use that information to understand and respond to the needs of their tenants and service users.