Kieran Findlay

Angus Council is being sued for £500,000 after a tenant claimed his mouldy home left him with “serious health issues”. Hamish Isard said the local authority is in breach of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 which “requires that the house is wind and water tight and in

Bridgewater Housing Association has improved its policies and procedures relating to tenant safety after it identified issues with its gas servicing programme. The Association self-referred to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) when a change of contractor led to 36 of its properties not being

The lightweight form of concrete linked to the collapse of the roof at a primary school in 2018 could be widespread in social homes built during the 1950s-70s, consultants have warned. Yesterday our sister publication Scottish Construction Now reported that reinforced autoclaved aerated co

CIH Scotland has published its response to the Scottish Housing Regulator's (SHR) call for views on the regulatory framework with a concern that prioritising regulatory focus could hamper the ability of social landlords to have a flexible approach to meeting the needs of tenants.

An MSP has called for the Scottish Parliament to instruct an independent KC-led inquiry into some of the Scottish Housing Regulator’s interventions and approach to regulation in general. In a recent speech to the Scottish Parliament, Stirling constituency representative Evelyn Tweed said she f

Scottish Housing News editor Kieran Findlay shares his thoughts on the second day of CIH Scotland's Housing Festival in Glasgow. If delegates ended day one of Scotland’s Housing Festival with a chuckle at some high-profile corporate marketing failures, they were jolted back towards the task at

The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) has asked social landlords to confirm by the end of February what their planned rent increase will be after 1 April 2023. The Scottish Government has now confirmed that regulations will be submitted to the Scottish Parliament to expire the provisions in the Cost

Tenants' rights minister Patrick Harvie has announced that he intends to cap private sector rents at 3% and that evictions will continue to be prevented for all tenants except in a number of specified circumstances from April.

The enhanced eviction protections currently in place across both the social rented sector and private rented sector (PRS) are to remain in place after the end of March when the rent cap will also continue but only for the PRS, the Scottish Government has announced.

An agreed definition of a Scottish equivalent of the Passivhaus standard which will become the minimum for all new housing in the country is to be the subject of consultation between the Scottish Government and the building industry, Patrick Harvie has confirmed. Last month, the

A pilot project to encourage property owners to sell directly to the local authority in a bid to ease housing pressures in the Highlands and prevent second-home owners from letting out their homes on Airbnb was the most read story on Scottish Housing News in the past year.

The Scottish Government has decided not to extend rent controls for social housing providers beyond March 2023 with social landlord representatives bodies announcing their members’ plans for below-inflation rent increases for the next financial year. COSLA has issued a statement of intent whic

SHN editor Kieran Findlay finds out how the escalating energy crisis is affecting the sector and how associations are responding. Skyrocketing energy costs and inflation are directly impacting the operations of housing associations across Scotland with increased overheads forcing delays to maintenan

Emergency legislation that will give ministers temporary power to cap rents for private and social tenants, as well as for student accommodation, and introduce a moratorium on evictions has been approved by MSPs. The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Scotland Bill faced a final vote

Emergency legislation to freeze rents has been the first piece of Scottish legislation to be vetted by King Charles as it passed the first stage of scrutiny at the Scottish Parliament yesterday. A motion to treat the Cost of Living (Protection of Tenants) (Scotland) Bill 2022 as emergency legis