Convened by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) in response to the pandemic, the SHRG recognises the human impact of this global crisis and aims to help social landlords continue to provide the support which their tenants and communities need. 

Since the last week’s update, the SHRG has continued to focus on, and address, the following issues identified by social landlords:   

• PPE – a representative from the SHRG will begin to work with the Government National Contingency Group, to ensure that an adequate supply of PPE is provided to social landlords. This is particularly important for social landlords that deliver care services, but it is also vital for key workers who continue to visit tenants in their properties, e.g. to carry out safety checks, cleaning in and around properties, and emergency repairs 
• gas safety compliance – the Health and Safety Executive confirmed its position on the continuation of gas safety checks in guidance published on 7 April, which includes scenarios for working with particular groups. The SHRG is working with the Scottish Government to update its FAQs for social landlords in order for this guidance is reflected. Lobbying is continuing to extend the gas servicing period to 18 months 
• advice and protocols – the SHRG has identified issues on allocations, voids, and homelessness and is overseeing provision of advice for social landlords which will be available shortly. CIH and Scottish Women’s Aid published guidance on domestic abuse on 15 April, with input from the SHRG 
• key workers – the SHRG has incorporated feedback from RSLs into an updated framework to support local decision making on key workers  
• the Scottish Housing Regulator is finalising with the SHRG a short monthly return to gather critical information from each landlord to help understand the scale and nature of disruption and to help plan co-ordinated responses  
• support for RSLs – the SHRG has developed key asks and is engaging with both the commercial lending sector and government on financial support and flexibilities for RSLs and regarding developing potential models for sharing resources across the sector and for RSLs   
• rent and evictions – the SHRG has agreed a position on rents and evictions to support tenants and housing associations through the crisis and to continue to deliver crucial services at this time  
• community and humanitarian support – the SHRG is developing proposals to support housing associations to add value to housing associations supporting their communities through, and after, the crisis.  
• Joint working – the SHRG has agreed a mechanism to link to guidance and briefings on each other’s websites, with the aim of avoiding confusion and duplication 

To find out more about the SHRG, please contact enquiries@sfha.co.uk  

• Read all of our articles relating to COVID-19 here.