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Inspection of East Lothian Housing Association

The Scottish Housing Regulator today published its inspection report on East Lothian Housing Association. The purpose of the inspection was to provide an independent external assessment on the effectiveness of its housing services and make recommendations to help improvement.

The Regulator has awarded East Lothian Housing Association a ‘good’ rating for its overall performance.

Lesley Kerr, Acting Head of Inspection at the Scottish Housing Regulator, said:

“Our inspectors found that East Lothian Housing Association had many strengths but it also had some areas where improvement is needed. It has a clear focus on providing good quality services, an excellent approach to tenancy and neighbourhood management and it provides good access to its repairs service. The Association has a robust approach to business planning”.

“We found some weaknesses in the Governance of the organisation, particularly in relation to employment and remuneration matters and conflicts of interest. The Association acknowledged governance failings and has agreed a process with us to develop a stronger approach to its governance responsibilities“.

NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS

1. Inspectors gave East Lothian Housing Association the following grade after the inspection:

2. Full details of Home Scotland’s inspection report can be found on the Scottish Housing Regulator website at www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk.

3. East Lothian Housing Association became a registered social landlord (RSL) in 1988 and has charitable status. It has approximately 1,500 tenanted properties manages 60 shared ownership properties and factors in the region of 50 properties.

4. 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.