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Appendix C
Changes required by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001
1 HOUSING (SCOTLAND) ACT 2001
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 has made major changes to the housing legislation in Scotland. The Act received the Royal Assent in July 2001. However, the amendments to previous Acts and the introduction of new duties will roll out over the next year. Some sections were commenced a period after the Royal Assent, namely the introduction of a new Executive agency, Communities Scotland. This short appendix gives an overview when provisions are to be commenced. It should be noted at the outset that many of the dates are not finalised as the orders for commencement have to go through the parliamentary procedure and, until that happens, then finalised dates cannot be given. The dates indicated in the report are the ones that are generally assumed to be the dates of commencement.
1.1.1 DATES FOR COMMENCEMENT OF SECTIONS OF THE HOUSING(SCOTLAND) ACT 2001
APRIL 2002
Homelessness
• Change the definition of homelessness from being when someone has no accommodation in Scotland, England or Wales to the UK or elsewhere
• Threatened with homelessness to change the period of time from 28 days to 2 months
• Right to have a homelessness decision reviewed
Allocation of housing - access
• Changes to legislation governing access to waiting lists and the allocation of housing
SEPTEMBER 2002
Homelessness
• Temporary accommodation for all homeless households regardless of priority need
• Enhanced advice and assistance to be given to non-priority households and those who are intentionally homeless
• Registered social landlords under new duties to assist local authorities in rehousing homeless households
Right to buy
A general point here is that the modernised right to buy comes in on September 2002 for all new tenants after that date. Current tenants retain their current rights. However if they transfer after September they move on to the modernised right to buy. There are some exemptions to this, eg succession by the joint tenant, spouse or partner or if the transfer is compulsory due to the property being in line for demolition - however the general case is as outlined above.
• Qualifying period before a tenant can buy a house is changed from 2 to 5 years for new tenants or tenants who transfer after September 2002
• Change of discounts from starting at 32% for houses and flats to 20% for both; to setting a maximum discount of 35% as opposed to the current 60% for houses and 70% for flats
• Introduction of a maximum discount of £15,000
• Introduction of pressured areas
• Extension of the right to buy to some housing association tenants
Repairs and Improvement Grants
At date of writing this report there is little information available about the detail that is due to be outlined in regulations. The following points are those that are set out in the 2001 Act, but the section about improvement and repair grants will need to be revisited once the detail of the regulations is known.
• Maximum grant of £20,000 for both forms of grant
• Means testing introduced for improvement grants
