Social Housing Resilience Group weekly update: 19 June
Update on SHRG's work and key issues.
The Social Housing Resilience Group (SHRG) was convened by SFHA in response to the coronavirus outbreak. As well as SFHA, the SHRG comprises Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland, Scottish Housing Regulator, Wheatley Group, Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum of Housing Associations, Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, and Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers. It aims to deal with the significant challenges the outbreak is causing so that social landlords can continue to provide the support their tenants and communities need.
The meeting on 16 June heard from John Mills of Fife Council and Shona Stephens of Queens Cross Housing Association, in relation to the reconvened Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group (HARSAG) under the convenorship of Jon Sparkes of Crisis. Both sit on this group which is developing recommendations for the Housing Minister to prevent homelessness in the coming months. Housing organisations and others have been invited to input into HARSAG’s recommendations, and a number of submissions were made, including from SFHA, GWSF, Wheatley Group, Public Health Scotland and CoSLA.
The meeting then considered its core priorities. The Scottish Government will respond to the concerns over deadlines for the installation of smoke and heat detectors and regarding EESSH2. The SHRG will be previewing a draft letter from the Housing Minister, setting out what might help the sector to meet the February 2021 deadline for the completion of the works to install fire and carbon monoxide detector alarms.
The SFHA has published guidance on restarting services. The Open Space platform for collaborative learning has also been been launched.
Discussions are planned on future models for future care and support.
The Financial Resilience Group will provide an update, after it has met next week, to a future SHRG meeting. The deadline for returns to its survey is at the end of this month.
The Scottish Housing Regulator is putting the finishing touches to its report on the May return from landlords, prior to publication. Arears levels and temporary accommodation lets are increasing in reaction to the emergency.
The national procurement route for PPE is up and running, with positive feedback from landlords who have used it.