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scottish housing regulator

Safeguarding tenants’ interests to remain at heart of Regulator’s work

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scottish housing regulator

Michael Cameron

The Scottish Housing Regulator has pledged that safeguarding and promoting tenants’ and service users’ interests will remain a priority as the organisation published a summary of its work in 2018/19.

Highlights of the Regulator’s programme for the year ahead include a national charter analysis and individual landlord reports in August, a planned programme of engagement with 64 RSLs and 20 local authorities as well as a major consultation on the future of regulation of social housing in Scotland.

The Regulatory Framework, explains how the Regulator operates its statutory powers and duties, will be reviewed this year, including a review of Charter indicators. The Regulator plans to work closely with stakeholders on the review and formally consult later in 2018.

Michael Cameron, chief executive, said: “This year we will keep tenants at the heart of our work as we engage with RSLs and local authorities. We will work closely with our stakeholders to deliver a new Regulatory Framework.

“We will use the review of the Framework as an opportunity to reflect with our stakeholders and develop the ideas that came out of the discussion paper we published earlier this year. This is hugely important for us and for landlords, tenants, lenders and everyone with an interest in our work.”

In the summary, which is available on the its website, the Regulator sets out the following:

Planned Regulatory Work

  • We will carry out planned engagement as described in regulation plans for RSLs and scrutiny plans for Local Authorities

  • We will publish information on the indicators that we will use to assess risk in November

  • We will assess risk for RSLs & Local Authorities and publish the outcome in March

    • Scottish Social Housing Charter & financial analysis

    We will:

    • Collect performance information from all social landlords

    • Test quality of Charter data with landlords by June

    • Publish landlord reports & our updated online comparison tool by August

    • Publish our national report on the Charter by August

    • Publish key financial metrics for RSLs in November

    • Report on RSL borrowing by November & the financial health of RSLs by March

      • Statutory Intervention

      • We will oversee current and any future statutory intervention cases.

      • We will publish accounts of our statutory interventions.

      • We will publish a lessons learned report on our first three concluded statutory intervention cases.

        • Involving tenants and our other stakeholders

        • We will involve tenants though our National Panel of more than 400 Tenants and Service Users

        • We will engage with the RTO Regional Network

        • We will closely engage all our stakeholders in our work during 2018/19, especially as we develop our new Regulatory Framework and consult formally on this.

          • Regulatory Framework Review

          • We will use the valuable feedback gathered from stakeholders during the discussion to draft a new Framework and associated guidance.

          • We will formally consult on the new Framework and associated guidance

          • We will take account of any changes brought about by new legislation.

          • We will review and consult on revised Charter indicators

            • Our Corporate Work

            We will comply with our duties as a Scottish Public body. As part of these we will:

            • Publish a statement on our compliance with public services requirements in August

            • Publish a sign language plan in October

            • Submit a climate change report in November

              • We will also:

              • Prepare for and work in line with the new General Data Protection Regulation

              • Manage a new Business Intelligence contract

              • Work within our revenue budget settlement of £3.885m

              • Lay our 2017/18 annual report & accounts before the Scottish Parliament in September

              • Promote opportunities to join our Board in April 2019

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