The Revised Scottish Social Housing Charter was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 1 August 2022. A previous version was laid before the Parliament on 22 February 2022, but was withdrawn after the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee noted that its consultation requirements had not been fully complied with.

A copy of the revised Charter can be found at Annexe A to the Committee's meeting papers for 27 September 2022.

The Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants Rights wrote to the Committee explaining the changes made since the previous version was considered by the Committee. The Minister's letter was attached at Annexe B of the same set of meeting papers.

The revised Charter is subject to the affirmative procedure and must be approved by the Scottish Parliament before it can come into force.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 introduced the Scottish Social Housing Charter. The Charter focuses on improving the quality and value of services provided by landlords across Scotland and sets the standards and outcomes that social housing landlords should be achieving for their tenants and other customers. The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) monitors and reports on landlord performance against the Charter based on a series of Charter indicators which they collect.

More specifically, the Charter sets out the standards and outcomes that:

• tenants can expect from social landlords, in terms of the quality and value for money of the services they receive, the standard of their homes, and opportunities for communication and participation in the decisions that affect them;

• homeless people can expect from social landlords in terms of access to help and advice, the quality of temporary accommodation, and continuing support to help homeless people access and keep a home owners can expect from the property management services they receive from social landlords; and

• Gypsy / Travellers can expect in terms of the maintenance and management of sites.

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

The first Charter was approved by the Scottish Parliament in 2012. There is a requirement to review it every five years and the last Charter came into force in 2017.

The Scottish Government undertook a consultation on the charter prior to laying this revised charter. An analysis of the consultation responses can be accessed via the following link: Scottish Social Housing Charter: consultation analysis - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

The Committee previously took evidence from the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights on the Revised Charter at its meeting on 1 March 2022. The Official Report of that session is available on the Committee's website.

As previously noted, subsequent to that session the Charter was withdrawn following the raising of concerns about the consultation process by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the Revised Charter at its meeting on 6 September and indicated that it was now content with it.

The Committee took evidence on the revised Charter from the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights at its meeting on 27 September 2022. The Official Report is available on the Committee's website.

Following evidence, the Minister moved Motion S6M-05578— That the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee recommends that the Scottish Social Housing Charter: November 2022 be approved.

The motion was agreed to.