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SHR Update - September 2021

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Welcome

It has been another busy and challenging few months as we all continue to work to tackle the challenges of COVID-19. 



At the end of last month, we published our eighth national report on social landlords' performance against the Scottish Social Housing Charter.



2020/21 was a year like no other. Scotland’s social landlords were amongst the first to respond to the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 and support their tenants through the public health crisis. 



To reflect this unique and challenging context, our national report has a different focus and look to previous years.


The headline findings shows that, overall, most tenants remain satisfied with the homes and services their landlord provides. Some areas of performance have improved or been maintained and some have dipped. 



While it is not possible to be definite that any and every dip in performance is, in whole or in part, a direct consequence of the pandemic, it is unquestionably the most significant contextual factor in assessing performance in the last year. 

Landlords have also had to operate within changing levels of restrictions throughout 2020/21. Unsurprisingly, this has had an impact on the performance of landlords, and so on the annual performance data they reported to us.



Over the coming months, social landlords will continue to have a range of challenges to contend with as they recover out of the pandemic. We will continue to work with landlords, tenants, the Scottish Government and the Social Housing Resilience Group as social landlords continue to work to build back the range of services they provide for tenants and other service users.


George Walker

Chair

Michael Cameron, Chief Executive

George Walker, Chair

Our National Report on the Scottish Social Housing Charter 2020/21

At the end of August, we published our eighth National Report on the Scottish Social Housing Charter at the end of August. 


The report shows how social landlords performed against the standards and outcomes of the Charter during 2020-21. 


Nine out of ten tenants remain satisfied with the quality of the homes and services their landlord provide. Tenant satisfaction with the quality of homes remained high at 87%. 


Average tenant satisfaction with opportunities to participate remained steady at 87%, and tenant satisfaction with being kept informed stayed steady at 92% have increased steadily since 2014/15. 



The report also shows that average weekly rents went up by 2.7% to £83.70, and the percentage of tenants satisfied that their rent is good value for money dropped slightly to 83% from 84%. Planned rent increases went down to 1.2% from 2.5% last year.  


We also published a suite of performance information including our individual landlord reports, comparison tool, and all the statistical information social landlords sent to us about their performance against the Charter. 

Read more
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Our first quarterly COVID-19 dashboard 

We recently published our first quarterly dashboard report on the impact of COVID-19 on social landlords. 



It shows that rent arrears levels have remained stable since March 202 and that there was a marginal decrease in the number of households in temporary accommodation.


Our dashboard reports are designed to help the Scottish Government and social landlords to understand the continuing impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and to support the work of the Social Housing Resilience Group.


Read more
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New report analysing the impact of COVID-19 on social landlords in Scotland

The Social Housing Resilience Group (SHRG) published a report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social landlords in Scotland. 


The report uses data social landlords provided to us each month during 2020/21, 


It aims to build as full a picture as possible of that impact, alongside information about the impact on social landlords across the UK.

Read more
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Our National Panel gives snapshot of COVID's impact on landlords' services and tenants' quality of life

In July, we published the latest research from the National Panel of Tenants an Service Users.  


The report presents the experiences of members of the National Panel of Tenants and Service Users since March 2020. 



It shows a large majority of respondents felt that the pandemic has affected their landlord’s services and has also had a negative impact on their quality of life.


Around fourth fifths of tenants who took part felt that their landlord’s services had been affected by the pandemic. Almost half said the impact was significant.

Tenants most commonly experienced some services stopping temporarily and longer timescales for responding to queries. Most also said that their landlord had continued to provide at least some key services, with two fifths saying that all key services had continued.

Read more
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Statutory intervention at Wishaw and District Housing Association 

We published our report on the outcome of our statutory intervention at Wishaw and District Housing Association. 



The report sets out why we intervened and the action we took to safeguard the interests of tenants and service users. 



We ended our statutory intervention at Wishaw and District in December 2019 after the transfer of its assets and liabilities to Trust Housing Association.

Read more
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Speeches & events 

Our Chief Executive, Michael Cameron recently spoke at TIS event on rent setting and affordability.





    Read Michael's speech
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    What's next?

    

    • Our Annual Report and Accounts 
    • More on the risks we will focus on in our next annual risk assessment.
    • Social landlords'  Annual Assurance Statements 
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    www.housingregulator.gov.scot

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