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Six housing associations deemed non-compliant in Scottish regulator’s assurance review
Six housing associations have been deemed non-compliant by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) in its annual assurance review of the sector.
The review, which details the performance against the SHR’s requirements of all the country’s housing associations, found six to be non-compliant, while four were deemed compliant but are under review.
Each year, Scottish social housing landlords are expected to submit a statement to confirm they meet regulatory requirements or set out how they will address any areas of non-compliance.
From Inside Housing’s analysis of the 143 returns, it found that Cathcart & District Housing Association, Charing Cross Housing, Forth Housing, Linstone Housing, Reidvale Housing, and Trafalgar Housing Association were deemed non-compliant, but they are working towards compliance.
A number of these associations were found to be non-compliant on governance grounds.
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This included Forth Housing. Following an investigation, it was found there were serious failings in the association’s control of payments and benefits, ethical standards, management of conflicts of interest, allocations practices and concerns regarding the culture of the organisation.
The regulator is now engaging with Forth to establish the full extent of compliance failures and its ability to deliver improvements.
Linstone Housing was found to be non-compliant on tenant safety duties after a review into its governance revealed weaknesses.
Trafalgar Housing Association was found to be only partially compliant in 2019 and 2020 as part of the annual assurance checks.
A reassessment this year found it was still only partially compliant and the regulator was looking to “seek assurance that it has the capacity and capability to address the governance weaknesses identified and to achieve compliance with the regulatory standards and requirements”.
Last week, Trafalgar sent a letter to SHR saying that following an internal audit, it now complies with a regulatory standards “to the best of its knowledge”.
Cathcart & District Housing Association decided to review its compliance after carrying out a tenant health survey as instructed by the regulator. The review found that it was non-compliant with a number of its duties.
Charing Cross Housing recently transferred its homes to West of Scotland Housing Association. The latest register stated that the landlord is “working towards compliance”, with an engagement plan covering the provider’s plans up to the end of March 2023.
The assurance review also found that Reidvale Housing did not meet requirements on governance and financial management. It is working to achieve compliance.
In addition to the landlords deemed non-compliant associations, there were also four providers that are compliant but are currently under review. These are: Albyn Housing Society, Calvay Housing Association, Clyde Valley Housing Association, and Milnbank Housing Association.
As part of their submissions this year, the SHR asked landlords about their process in collecting data on equality and details of how they are adopting human rights in their approach to work. It also asked landlords to highlight outstanding Electrical Installation Condition Reports in their statements.
The regulator will now assess the statements as part of its annual risk assessment and take into account the challenging environment landlords are currently facing. This will be published in March 2023.
Michael Cameron, chief executive of the SHR, said: “Landlords are continuing to face significant uncertainty and challenges as a result of the cost of living crisis and the policy context, especially around the Scottish government’s review of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing and the emergency legislation on rent increases.
“We recognise the efforts landlords have made to prepare and submit their statements during this period of significant uncertainty.”
Inside Housing has contacted all housing associations mentioned in this story.
Housing associations’ responses
Reidvale Housing Association: “We are working closely with the Scottish Housing Regulator on the range of compliance failings that we have identified.
“We have a plan in place for addressing these to ensure we move towards full compliance. As part of this plan, we are at the early stages of exploring a potential transfer of engagements to another housing association to test whether this could offer a better future for our tenants and other customers
Linstone Housing: “ We are working with regulator to address the issues raised and plan to be compliant for the next return.”
Albyn Housing Society: “Albyn Housing Society has been deemed compliant (under review) since 27 January 2022 by the Scottish Housing Regulator. Since then, the organisation has made huge progress.
“This is reflected in our new annual assurance statement, published last week on the SHR website, noting that we have made significant progress. SHR is due to review our status again and we expect it to be updated once this process is complete, hopefully in the next few months.”
A Forth Housing Association spokesperson said: "Forth Housing Association has been working openly and constructively with The Scottish Housing Regulator and are fully committed to addressing the issues that were highlighted over the last year which formed part of our annual assurance statement in 2021/22. We have made significant improvements including strengthening our leadership capacity with our governing body and our senior management team as well as developing our Governance Improvement Plan.
"The Scottish Housing Regulator has considered our improvement information and are satisfied the improvement plan covers the areas of weakness identified and reflects Forth’s commitment to improve its governance and financial management."
