Charity welcomes new Social Housing Charter

The Scottish Government has this week launched the first Social Housing Charter.

The Charter establishes 16 standards and outcomes which all social landlords should achieve for their tenants and other customers, and will affect more than half a million households across the country.

Amongst the outcomes in the Charter are requirements that tenants should find it easy to:

Communicate with their landlord, and get information about the decisions it takes and the services it provides
Participate in and influence decisions made
Obtain support about remaining in their home

More broadly, the Charter is intended to empower tenants, as well as establishing the basis for the new Scottish Housing Regulator, whose job it is to assess and report on how landlords are performing.

Age Scotland Policy Officer Greg McCracken said: "Social Landlords do a vital job in providing high quality, affordable rented housing for many of Scotland's older and vulnerable households. This Charter sets out the expectations tenants should have of their landlords, as well as the basis upon which the Regulator will assess and report on landlords' performance.

"Age Scotland welcomes the Charter in its current form. Incorporating just 16 Outcomes - as opposed to the 71 initially proposed during the consultation process - we believe the Charter strikes the right balance between supporting tenants' right to engagement whilst acknowledging social landlords' history in delivering a valuable service."

A copy of the Social Housing Charter is available from the Scottish Government website.