Chamber and committees

Information on the level of housing debt in each local authority is published annually in the Local Authority Housing Income and Expenditure official statistics publication. Data up to 31 March 2010 and estimates as at 31 March 2011 were published on 28 September 2010 and are available online at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/HRA2008-09

The excel table entitled Outstanding Debt shows the total capital debt on the council''s housing revenue account as at 31 March each year for those authorities which retain housing stock. The table below this also shows a debt per house figure based on the number of houses owned by that authority.

Information on the level of housing debt and loans charges related to this debt in each local authority is published annually in the Local Authority Housing Income and Expenditure official statistics publication. Data up to 31 March 2010 and estimates as at 31 March 2011 were published on 28 September 2010 and are available online at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Housing-Regeneration/HSfS/HRA2008-09

The excel table entitled Loan charge expenditure shows the total loan charge expenditure from 1997-98 to 2009-10 and estimates for 2010-11 on local authorities'' housing revenue accounts, broken down to show debt redemption, interest and loans fund expenses.

The Scottish Government will not consult on the powers of the new, independent Scottish Housing Regulator to issue performance targets to social landlords (local authorities and registered social landlords) in the Housing (Scotland) Bill. The Bill, by requiring the regulator to consult on and publish a statement on the performance of its functions, including its powers to set performance improvement targets for social landlords, places the duty to consult in respect of these matters on the regulator. There is also a specific duty on the regulator to consult before it issues a performance improvement target.

The United Kingdom Government is directly cutting Scotland''s resources by £1.3 billion next year. The decision to increase the interest rates on loans offered to councils by the Public Works Loan Board is an additional handicap. By putting even more pressure on local authority budgets, it reduces their capacity to invest in a wide range of infrastructure projects, including on schools, roads, housing and flood prevention schemes.

Performance standards for social landlords and homelessness functions are statutory guidance that ministers issued under section 79(1) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 (the 2001 Act). They were developed in consultation with COSLA and the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and provide a framework for the current Scottish Housing Regulator to assess the performance of social landlords and for landlords to assess their own performance.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill will repeal Section 79 of the 2001 Act and replace the performance standards with the Scottish Social Housing Charter, for which sections 31-33 of the Bill make provision.

Section 33 of the Bill requires Scottish Ministers, before preparing the charter, to consult a wider range of stakeholders than was involved in developing the performance standards. These stakeholders include tenants, homeless persons and other users of housing services, as well as social landlords. The charter will provide the framework for the new, independent Scottish Housing Regulator to monitor, assess and report on (and where necessary intervene in) social landlords'' performance of housing activities. This provides a clear separation between setting standards (the role of ministers) and assessing performance against those standards (the role of the independent regulator).

The involvement of service users and others, as well as landlords, in developing the charter is one of the most important ways in which it differs from the performance standards. Another is that the charter can set outcomes as well as standards. This will enable the charter to be cast in terms that will encourage social landlords to concentrate on the results that they should be delivering for tenants, homeless people and other service users. The Bill requires the regulator to monitor, assess and report annually on landlords'' performance against the charter and provides it with powers to intervene where a landlord is failing, or at risk of failing, to achieve the outcomes in the charter.

It is the landlord''s duty at the start of a relevant tenancy to provide the tenant with written information regarding the repairing standard and their right to apply to the private rented housing panel (prhp) if the standard is not being adhered to. Section 20(1) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 covers this.

The prhp can provide tenants with its leaflet A brief guide for tenants and information can be seen on its website.

Shelter, Citizens Advice and law centres also advise tenants of the work carried out by the prhp.

Rent officers when visiting properties as part of their duties in cases of rent assessment, distribute leaflets about the prhp and inform tenants of their right of appeal to the prhp.

Section 29 of the current Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Bill would require a landlord under an assured tenancy to provide a tenant information pack to a tenant at the beginning of the tenancy. Ministers would have the power to prescribe by order the documents to be included. Information on the prhp could be available as part of the pack if this provision becomes law.

There were five regulated tenancies in 2009-10 determined by the private rented housing panel which had a rent fixed lower than that established by the local rent officer.

There were 13 regulated tenancies in 2009-10 determined by the private rented housing panel which had a rent fixed higher than that established by the local rent officer.

The number of tenants who submitted appeals to the private rented housing panel in 2009-10 broken down by local authority is:

Aberdeenshire: 1

Dumfries and Galloway: 1

City of Edinburgh: 5

Glasgow City: 16

Highland: 1

Moray: 1

West Dunbartonshire: 1

Total: 26

The latest official figures show that there are around 285,300 dwellings owned and managed by local authorities that are considered to be normal letting stock. It is expected that all the households currently occupying these dwellings have either preserved rights, modernised rights, or are serving the five year qualifying period leading to modernised right to buy eligibility. The breakdown of data for these categories is currently not held centrally. The Scottish Government is however working with local authorities to explore the possibility of collecting this breakdown and improving the information in this area.

In addition to local authority tenants, registered social landlords have reported to the Scottish Housing Regulator that, as at 31 March 2010, 150,600 of their 265,400 tenancies qualify for either preserved or modernised right to buy. This figure can be broken down to show that 68,800 have preserved rights and 81,800 have modernised rights. The remainder are either exempt or are serving the qualifying period leading to modernised right to buy eligibility.