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Scottish Housing Regulator hands back £530,000 to government
The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) handed back more than half a million pounds to the Scottish government last year, during what it called the most challenging year for social housing in over a decade.
Scotland’s regulator said savings on office costs and longer lead-in times to recruit for new roles had allowed it to return £530,000 for ministers to divert to other areas of public spending.
The SHR spent £5m of its £5.3m revenue budget in 2023-24 and returned £130,000 of this budget to the Scottish government halfway through the year to “support in-year pressures in other areas of public expenditure”.
The regulator “did not require” its £400,000 capital budget for the year and was able to return it to the Scottish government to reuse.
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This budget was intended to pay for the fit-out cost of a joint new office with another public body, but the other organisation “withdrew from the arrangement”.
The savings came during what the SHR described as the most challenging year for social housing since the regulator was established in 2012.
In its annual accounts for 2023-24, the SHR said Scotland was experiencing record levels of homelessness and councils failing to provide temporary accommodation. These challenges “look like they will continue” into 2024-25 and beyond, it added.
The regulator noted that social landlords’ contribution to reducing child poverty and improving health outcomes was being “severely impacted” by cost inflation, higher interest rates and a tightening of public finances.
These strains will reduce housebuilding and restrict spending on maintenance and tenancy sustainment, it predicted.
“The current context is testing and stretching the resilience, capacity and confidence of social landlords in a way that we have not seen before,” the SHR said. The coming years were “likely to remain unpredictable, volatile and difficult for those who rely on social housing and for those who provide it”.
In April 2023, the SHR moved its office to George House in central Glasgow. This is a temporary space which the regulator shares with Transport Scotland. The regulator will move to the Glasgow office of Social Security Scotland this financial year.
For the current 2024-25 financial year, the SHR has a budget settlement of £5.2m of revenue, £100,000 of capital and £300,000 of non-cash.
The regulator will publish its annual risk assessment in November and its analysis of landlords’ financial positions later this year, followed by its new engagement plans in March 2025.
It also said it hoped to publish the outcome of its thematic work on Gypsies/Travellers, tenant participation and British Sign Language early in 2024-25.
