Rent Affordability Highlighted As Important Issue At Holywood Committee

The Scottish Housing Regulator has highlighted rent affordability as an important issue to tenants as it gave evidence to a Holywood Committee on its work over the past year.

The organisation's Chair, George Walker, and Chief Executive, Michael Cameron, appeared before the Local Government and Communities Committee on Wednesday, 15 November.

As he gave evidence, Mr Walker emphasised rent affordability as an issue for tenants, noting an increase in inflation to 3% and tenant concerns about future affordability.

He told Committee members that rent affordability will remain an area of focus for the Regulator, and stressed the importance of landlords considering tenants' ability to keep paying their rent over the longer term.


Mr Walker also discussed the Regulator's work around homelessness and how it empowers tenants by publishing accessible information about landlord performance.

Commenting on social landlords' performance, Mr Walker said: "We know social landlords continue to perform well across almost all of the standards and outcomes in the Scottish Social Housing Charter. Most are managing resources to ensure their financial well-being."

However, he also advised the Committee that the Regulator is actively engaging with one in eight registered social landlords on serious governance issues and has used statutory intervention powers in seven landlords over the last three years.

In addition, a review on the Regulator's regulatory framework is underway and will run through the 2018.

The review will examine the building blocks of good governance, such as internal audit and whistleblowing, and consider how these tools can strengthen RSLs' governance.

(LM/MH)