Revised charter published
The revised Social Housing Charter has now been published following approval from Scottish Parliament.
The changes to the Charter were relatively minor, with Scottish Government noting the following amendments:
- Incorporating a reference to human rights and the ‘right to housing’ for all individuals into the Charter,
- In the equalities outcome adding the need for landlords to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity.
- Recognition of the benefits of using a range of non-digital and digital communications, in accessible formats that meet individual needs,
- Updating the reference to homes meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) and including meeting any other building quality standard and relevant Energy Efficiency and Zero Emission Heat Standard which is in place (recognising that this is a changing landscape in the context of decarbonisation),
- Reference to the range of actions that social landlords can take on their own and in partnership with others to cover support for victim/survivors of domestic abuse
- Additional emphasis on the role of all social landlords to prevent homelessness (recognising forthcoming new Homelessness Prevention Duty and increasing emphasis on prevention),
- Value for Money outcome – changed from a standard to an outcome and highlighted the legal requirement to consult on rents and service charges in the supporting narrative.
- Amending the Gypsy / Traveller outcome to reflect that sites do not fall below the Scottish Government’s guidance on minimum standards for these sites.
The full revised Charter is available on the Scottish Government website here: Scottish Social Housing Charter November 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)