Scotland’s Housing Network has undertaken a survey of housing governing bodies to understand the composition and demographics of governing body members and the views of those involved in governance.

Social housing generates important economic and social impacts for its residents, communities and for Scotland. Strong governance is pivotal in housing associations and co-operatives, providing the strategic direction and leadership necessary to create a successful organisation. The network carried out the study as a starting point to understand the views of those involved in governance in the social housing sector.

The findings highlight that governing bodies tended to skew older in terms of demographics, with only 1.7% of respondents reporting being under the age of 29. Attracting and retaining new governing body members is challenging, with almost half of respondents reporting that they had difficulties in recruiting and more than one third of respondents indicating that there were one or two vacancies. Conversely, a high proportion of respondents indicated that they had served on governing bodies for more than 8 years. This coupled with the ageing demographics of governing body members has implications in terms of succession planning.

The study also found that most responses considered their respective organisation to be strong or strong in most areas of governance with a few weaknesses. They also reported consistent effective challenge and support for senior management in their current governance arrangements. The vast majority of those surveyed reported receiving training and development which regularly provided training tailored to the needs of the board or provided targeted training that did this. This indicates that housing providers are investing in developing the skills, knowledge and experience that their governing body members need.

Trudi Tokarczyk, service improvement manager for Scotland’s Housing Network, said: “This survey is a starting point to understand the views of those involved in governance in the social housing sector and the key governance challenges that the sector faces.

“Attracting and retaining new governing body members is a challenge, however, the more complex and challenging financial environment in which social housing is obliged to operate has placed greater demands on the leadership of housing organisations. This can make recruitment and retention of governing body members difficult.”

The report will be launched at the Networks upcoming RSL Forum today.