Social Housing Resilience Group working on restarting services guide for landlords
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The Social Housing Resilience Group (SHRG) is working on a response on behalf of the sector to the Scottish Government’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Framework for Decision Making proposals and route map, including a restarting services guide for landlords, an online space for sharing practice and ideas, and focussed discussions on key priorities including lettings and financial support for tenants.
The SHRG was convened by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
In its weekly update of the SHRG, the SFHA said draft guidance on restarting services was shared with the group for any feedback, it is expected this guidance on opening offices and expanding on repairs will be with the sector within a week.
Elsewhere, a new national procurement option for PPE is now available for housing associations. Some associations already have an order in, turnaround time is 48 hours. Interested parties are asked to contact SFHA policy lead Stacey Dingwall sdingwall@sfha.co.uk for more details.
The second round of COVID-19 returns to the Scottish Housing Regulator are due next Monday. Aggregated figures will be shared with the SHRG and made available more widely shortly after.
Other updates this week include:
- SFHA is seeking financial data from members to inform asks of government and the commercial lending sector. SFHA has already received some completed submissions and member queries about the submission form. SFHA is keen to have as many responses as possible, so please do keep sending them in. Feedback on the form itself is also welcome to allow amendments to be made to the return for April-June data. For further information please contact SFHA policy lead Shona Mitchell smitchell@sfha.co.uk
- SFHA shared feedback from associations on their tenants’ experiences with energy suppliers, with the main issues being legacy payment meters and with specific suppliers. There are also concerns over rising bills for tenants as the pandemic continues. Scottish Government has raised these with Energy UK, which is expected to join a call with the SHRG in the next couple of weeks.
- Work is underway to review future plans and priorities for EESSH and the installation of smoke detectors in light of current restrictions. SFHA has submitted evidence from members regarding fire safety and the scale of the issue to the Scottish Government and discussions are ongoing.
- Public Health Scotland updated the SHRG on the recruitment of contact tracers.
A report which summarises the outputs and outcomes delivered by the group between March and May 2020 is available here.
- Read all of our articles relating to COVID-19 here.
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