Review of the Scottish Social Housing Charter – Formal Consultation

Introduction and Background

This consultation seeks your views on the Scottish Social Housing Charter, which remains in force until 31 March 2017. Following this consultation, we will develop an updated version of the Charter and ask the Scottish Parliament to consider the changes and approve a new Charter from 1st April 2017.

The Charter was introduced by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010, which requires Ministers to set standards and outcomes that social landlords should be achieving for tenants and other customers through their housing activities. It also requires Ministers to review the Charter standards and outcomes from time to time.

The Charter sets the outcomes and standards that all social landlords should be achieving for their tenants and other customers through their housing activities.

Its purpose is to:

• give tenants, homeless people and other customers a clear understanding of what they should expect from a social landlord
• give landlords a clear understanding of what they should be delivering through their housing activities
• provide the basis for the Scottish Housing Regulator to monitor, assess and report on the performance of social landlords, and if necessary to require compliance with the Charter, and through the Regulator's reports:
  • give landlords the information they need to achieve continuous improvements in their performance and in the value for money they provide
  • give tenants and other customers information on how their landlord is performing in relation to other landlords, so that they can hold the landlord to account.

The Charter applies to Scottish social landlords. It does not cover private-sector landlords.

The standards and outcomes do not add any new duties to social landlords; rather they describe what a good social landlord should be achieving for its tenants and other customers.