Social Housing Charter Consultation

The Social Housing Charter is currently being considered by Scottish Parliament.   Details of the process are available in an SFHA briefing here:

Social Housing Charter - Briefing on Parliamentary Process Feb 2012

The SFHA has submitted written evidence on the revised Scottish Social Housing Charter to the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee.   It is available here:

Written Evidence to Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee

The Scottish Government has released the latest redraft of the Social Housing Charter.   It is available here:

Social Housing Charter - Redraft 16 January 2012

The most notable difference is that it has been reduced from 71 outcomes to 16 outcomes, which is clearly a great improvement and closer to what the SFHA suggested in its Alternative Charter.

The latest draft will now be considered by the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee at the Scottish Parliament.  The SFHA has been asked to submit written evidence to the Committee by Wednesday 18 January 2012, and will provide oral evidence on Wednesday 25 January 2012.

If you have any comments regarding the revised draft - especially if there are any outcomes you strongly object to - please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The SFHA submitted its response to the Scottish Government's Social Housing Charter consultation on 28 October 2011.   As part of its response the SFHA has proposed a greatly reduced Alternative Charter (of just 9 outcomes).    The full SFHA response along with all Appendices is available below:

SFHA Social Housing Charter Response

Appendix A - SFHA Alternative Charter (applicable to all RSLs)

Appendix B - SFHA Alternative Charter (not applicable to all RSLs)

Appendix C - Potential Performance Measures Against SFHA Alternative Charter

Appendix D - SFHA Comments on Each Charter Outcome

In addition to our individual response, we also put together a joint statement with the Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations and the Rural and Islands Housing Association Forum, outlining some key points that we all agreed needed to be addressed before the Charter is presented to Parliament.   We forwarded this Joint Statement on Social Housing Charter to Minister for Housing and Transport Keith Brown on 3 November 2011.

Following the Housing (Scotland) Act 2011, Scottish Ministers are required to develop and consult upon a Scottish Social Housing Charter.   This Charter will set the outcomes that housing associations and co-operatives are expected to achieve, and the Scottish Housing Regulator will use these outcomes as the basis for future regulation.

The Scottish Government launched its formal consultation on the draft Social Housing Charter on 1st August 2011, and the consultation will close 1st November 2011.   The SFHA has produced an briefing on its inital thoughts regarding the draft

The SFHA held four free regional focus groups relating to the Charter, which were attended by the Scottish Government.   The focus groups were held in Inverness, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.  The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman also attended to discuss their Model Complaints Handling Procedure and how this links in with the complaints outcomes within the Charter.   These groups were held in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness.

Following positive feedback received at our Focus Groups, and after some helpful redrafting suggestions, the SFHA submitted its proposal for an Alternative Charter to Scottish Government on 28 October 2011

You can also read the SFHA Response to the Scottish Government’s Initial Discussion Paper on the Charter (released in February 2011).  A comparison of Performance Standards with the Charter outcomes, and a summary of our survey results were submitted along side this document as Appendix A and Appendix B respectively.