The Scottish Housing Regulator (The Regulator) was established in April 2011 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010. The Regulator’s statutory objective is to:
“safeguard and promote the interests of current and future tenants of social landlords, people who are or may become homeless, and people who use housing services provided by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and local authorities”
The Regulator regulates social landlords to achieve its statutory objective and in doing so they have developed a Regulatory Framework, which outlines the Regulatory Standards of Governance and Financial Management, as well as other expectations they expect from landlords in their service and activities.
The Regulator in their regulation of social landlords sets out an engagement plan to reflect their regulatory status and the information landlords require to submit to them to ensure they are achieving good governance and effective financial management of their organisation. This information will provide the Regulator with a level of assurance social landlords are contributing towards their statutory objective and providing good outcomes for their tenants.
The Regulator’s website https://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk/ provides tenants with a range of information on their landlord, including:
Significant Performance Failures
The Regulator has provided guidance to tenants or tenants groups on reporting any Significant Performance Failures by landlords. A Significant Performance Failure is defined as poor performance or service by the landlord that could affect a number of tenants for example failing to attend to health and safety requirements such as the annual gas safety check, not repairing or maintaining tenants’ homes, or not consulting on key service policies or the annual rent increase.
The Regulator’s guidance encourages tenants and other to firstly raise the matter with their landlord in the first instance, thereafter if it is not attended to their satisfaction report the Significant Performance Failure to them. The Regulator’s factsheet on Significant Performance Failure can be found here.