Elected Member Briefing - Scottish Housing Regulator

About this briefing note

Report by: Elaine Ritchie, Senior Service Manager, Housing

Date: 21 April 2023

Subject: Scottish Housing Regulator Engagement Plan

Responsible Officer: Michelle Dow, Service Manager, Housing

Purpose

This briefing note is to inform you about the Housing Service's updated Engagement Plan with the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) 

Briefing Information

The SHR publishes an annual engagement plan for every social landlord in Scotland. The engagement plan sets out areas where the SHR feels the need to  work with a landlord, and what actions the landlord needs to take to improve services in the areas highlighted. All SHR engagement plans were released this month. 

In terms of Perth & Kinross Council's engagement plan (please see separate document attached) the SHR is only engaging with us on homelessness. This is currently the case for all local authorities given the pressure on social housing and the increase nationally in homeless presentations. 

We have gone through all 32 local authority engagement plans to see if there are any areas we need to focus on, or where we can learn from others. 

There are four other local authorities that only have homelessness on their engagement plans: 

• Renfrewshire Council 
• South Ayrshire Council 
• South Lanarkshire Council 
• Stirling Council  

We have noted that all other local authorities are facing increased engagement, including site visits, from the SHR, and the key themes are: 

• Homeless assessment of applications 
• Outcomes for people who are homeless 
• Gypsy Travellers' Sites standards 
• Tenant and residents' safety including Electrical Inspections and compliance with the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. 

Our Engagement Plan is limited to one area due to the detailed performance information and updates we have provided the SHR on the Housing Service. 

We will continue with our current governance and quality assurance processes to ensure we deliver high quality services for our tenants and people facing homelessness, and will take appropriate action if any areas of service delivery require improvements.