Housing Information: Latest News (Update 26th January 2009)
This section will be regularly updated with notices and articles to provide information on issues affecting tenant paticipation and rural housing issues.

See also our Consultations pages for current opportunities to contribute your views to Scotland's housing policies and legislation.

January 2009

Introduction of Section 11 of the Homelessness etc. (Scotland) Act 2003

A new duty comes into force on 1st April 2009 which will require landlords to inform their local authority whenever they start legal action to repossess (take back) a tenant's home.

Usually repossession action is taken when someone has serious rent arrears or acts in an antisocial way and their landlord has tried all other ways to sort out the situation with them. The purpose of the new duty is to ensure that local authorities have early notice of people who are at risk of homelessness.

Draft guidance for landlords and local authorities has been prepared and is currently available for comments prior to being finalised.

Tenant representatives may wish to study  the guidance and consult with their landlords about any implications for the service to tenants in their areas.

The web link is http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/access/homeless/s11

 

The Scottish Housing Regulator recruits tenant assessors

The Scottish Housing Regulator in December 2008 launched a recruitment campaign for volunteer tenant assessors.

A panel of tenant assessors already work with the Regulator, on a voluntary basis, to bring a service user perspective to the inspection process. The recruitment campaign is aimed at expanding the panel. Tenant assessors work with inspection teams to review and comment on the services provided by social landlords. While the work is unpaid all expenses are reimbursed.

A tenant assessor can be involved in inspection work in a number of ways:

- talking to and gathering the views of tenants;

- shadowing landlords' staff on estate and home visits;

- talking to staff and members of housing associations' governing bodies; and

- reviewing and commenting on literature produced by landlords for tenants.

John Jenkins, an Inspection Manager at the Scottish Housing Regulator said “We aim to include at least one tenant assessor on each inspection we carry out and are looking to add to our current panel of tenant assessors. This is an excellent opportunity for tenants to get involved in influencing the quality of landlords' services. We would particularly welcome applications from young people, tenants of local authorities and people from minority ethnic backgrounds as they are currently under represented on our present panel of tenant assessors.”

Closing date for applications is 30 January 2009. To find out more or obtain an application pack please contact:

Tenants' Priorities for Social Housing in Scotland - Research.

TIGHRA is currently participating in a reseach advisory working group to monitor research which will be carried out with RTOs and other tenants.

Around the end of January, Ipsos MORI will be sending each Registered Tenant Organisation (RTO) in Scotland a questionnaire seeking views on tenant priorities for social housing.

The questionnaire is part of a large research project that the Scottish Government has commissioned Ipsos MORI to undertake. The other parts of the project include a telephone survey of individual tenants and focus groups of tenants and RTO representatives.

The purpose of the research is to gain an understanding of those aspects of housing services that matter most to the tenants of social landlords. The findings from the research will be used to inform the development of future Government policy on social housing, including plans for a Housing Bill that, among other things, will modernise how social landlords are regulated .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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