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Scottish Housing Regulator publishes its second annual report and accounts

The Scottish Housing Regulator has today published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2009/10. Acting Chief Executive, Michael Cameron, said:

“I am pleased to introduce the Scottish Housing Regulator’s second Annual Report and Accounts. This report provides an account of the work we did during 2009/10 and demonstrates that we are to the fore in driving positive changes to the way external scrutiny is changing in Scotland.

During the last year we remained focused on the priorities and interests of tenants and service users, and we worked to act as a catalyst for improved services and well managed and financially sound landlords. We published information to help the sector over the year, most notably our Shaping Up report and business plan guidance for RSLs.

In our work with local authorities, we actively contributed to the development of the joint scrutiny framework for councils and have now fully participated in the first annual shared risk assessment process in partnership with other scrutiny bodies in Scotland.

We worked with and supported Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) to strengthen its governing body and deliver its strategic review. This was a notable achievement for us and was the catalyst for fundamental change in GHA and helped to create the right environment to allow GHA to improve. We also assessed and issued consent to GHA to allow four second stage transfers to take place.

We published 9 inspection reports on 16 services provided by RSLs and local authorities. We continued to use trained tenant assessors in all our inspections. We achieved successful outcomes to our two statutory intervention cases and supported other RSLs to tackle governance problems to ensure proper management and good service delivery.

Audit Scotland, our external auditor, has given an unqualified opinion on the SHR’s financial statements for 2009/10.

The Housing Bill currently going through Parliament will establish the Scottish Housing Regulator in statute and as a corporate body, independent of Ministers. This change in status will bring with it new powers and duties for us and in the coming year we will continue to build on the firm foundations we have laid whilst preparing for the challenges ahead.”

Notes to Editors:

1. The Scottish Housing Regulator came into operation on 1 April 2008. It is the successor to Communities Scotland’s Regulation & Inspection Division. It operates the powers and duties of the regulation of social housing which are set out in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. The Scottish Housing Regulator is an arm’s length executive agency of the Scottish Government. It has operational independence, while being accountable to Scottish Ministers and through them to the Scottish Parliament for the standard of its work.

2. A copy of the full Annual report and accounts is available on the Scottish Housing Regulator’s website (www. scottishhousingregulator.gsi.gov.uk).