This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Standards set for Scotland’s housing
04/02/2004
A new quality standard for Scotland's housing stock was
outlined in Parliament today.
The new Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) defines
what constitutes acceptable good quality housing. Local
authorities and other registered social landlords will have
until 2015 to meet the standard.
The SHQS will apply across all housing tenures and the
Executive will encourage local authorities to use it to
monitor the condition of private housing.
In broad terms, to meet the SHQS, a house must
be:
• above the tolerable standard which is the absolute
minimum standard that a house must meet,
• free from serious disrepair such as major roof,
dampness or structural problems,
• energy efficient so it must have effective
insulation and central heating,
• provided with kitchen and bathroom fittings that
are in a good and safe condition,
• safe and secure, for example it must have a smoke
detector, secure doors and safe electrical and gas
systems.
Speaking in Parliament, Communities Minister, Margaret
Curran said:
"This new standard forms a critical part of our
long-term vision for improving fundamentally, the physical
quality of social housing in this country and the quality
of service that tenants receive.
"As well as requiring houses to be free from any serious
disrepair, the SHQS makes major commitments to improving
energy efficiency. In this day and age, it is simply not
acceptable to expect families to live in a house that is
cold, damp and difficult to heat. While there has been a
significant reduction in the numbers of households living
in fuel poverty, we cannot be complacent. By making energy
efficiency a central element of the Standard, we are
clearly demonstrating our ongoing commitment to tackling
one of the most unacceptable aspects of social housing in
this country.
"We consulted widely about the target date for meeting
the standard. The recent Scottish House Condition Survey
estimates about 70 per cent of Scotland's social housing
falls beneath the new standard, although many houses miss
it only marginally. We have asked landlords to submit
their plans for meeting the Standard by April 2005. I
believe that an achievable, but challenging date for
meeting it should be ten years from the submission of those
plans."
Commenting on the means available to enable local
authorities to meet the SHQS, Ms Curran said:
"Some local authorities will use the flexibility of the
Prudential Regime to generate the necessary investment. I
am also giving councils flexibility in the use of their
housing receipts and I am announcing that the rules
requiring councils to set aside some of their housing
capital receipts to repay debt will be abolished from April
2004.
"This considerably frees up the financing options open
to local authorities and it is up to them to maximise the
investment opportunities now made available to them.
However, it will not be acceptable to burden current or
future tenants with excessive rent increases simply to
allow the housing stock to be retained under local
authority control.
"We have reviewed the community ownership process to
improve and streamline it with support from a group of
external advisers. At the centre of this new approach
will be the Community Ownership Programme, through which
local authorities wishing to undertake whole or partial
stock transfers will progress.
"To get on the programme, local authorities will need
the political commitment to community ownership, a
timetable agreed with the Executive, an assessment of the
financial requirements and evidence of tenant
involvement. The Executive will continue to work with
local authorities who want onto the programme and once on,
they can expect detailed help and support from Communities
Scotland."
Turning to the way in which housing investment must be
complemented by wider regeneration activities, Ms Curran
said:
"Major investment in housing in disadvantaged areas
needs to be accompanied by wider regeneration efforts to
produce sustainable change. That is why I announced last
year, funding of up to £175 million to support wider
regeneration as part of a community ownership
proposal.
"I have listened carefully to the views of those local
authorities that can improve housing quality without having
to transfer their housing but find the scale of
regeneration needs beyond their resources. I have
therefore decided that we should widen access to this
funding to local authorities that have a robust delivery
plan to achieve the new SHQS while retaining their housing
stock and importantly have significant areas of deprivation
with wider regeneration needs.
"Our policy of allowing local authorities to take over
the management of Communities Scotland development funding
remains in place. However, if local authorities wish to
take over this funding, or to retain it once it transfers,
they will need to produce - by 2005 - robust delivery
strategies to meet the new standard that are acceptable to
the Executive."
In conclusion, Ms Curran said:
"The Executive has delivered a coherent, comprehensive
policy framework offering viable alternatives for local
authorities against an immoveable commitment to deliver on
the new SHQS. I now expect local authorities to decide -
and to decide soon - how they will use this comprehensive
framework to deliver what is in the best interests of their
tenants."
There are no definite figures for the numbers of houses
that fail the SHQS because social landlords have yet to
gauge how their stock measures up to the new standard.
Estimates from the 2002 Scottish House Condition Survey
(published in November 2003 by Communities Scotland)
suggest that approximately:
• 456,000 houses in the social rented sector as whole
fail the SHQS (70 per cent)
• 310,000 local authority houses fail the SHQS (73
per cent)
• 146,000 housing association houses fail the SHQS
(64 per cent)
• 1.7 million private houses fail the SHQS (70 per
cent)
Many of the properties that fail do so on more than one
criterion so there is no single factor causing the
estimated fail rate. While a high proportion of housing
stock needs some work to bring it up to the new SHQs, in
many cases the work required will be limited.
It is not possible at this stage, to put a cost against
meeting the SHQS. More information on costs will appear
over time as all social landlords will be required to
provide fully costed delivery plans by April 2005.
The Community Ownership Review Group was set up
following housing stock transfers in Glasgow, Dumfries and
Galloway and the Scottish Borders. The group, which
included representatives from the housing and financial
sectors, was asked to
review the process of housing stock transfer so that
future transfers can be processed as quickly and as cost
effectively as possible.
A
letter is being issued to social landlords and other
interested parties which includes the detailed
specification of the SHQS. Further guidance will be issued
in due course.
Applying the SHQS to private sector housing is in line
with the recommendations of the Housing Improvement
Taskforce. In December 2003, Ms Curran announced that a
private sector housing bill will be brought forward during
the lifetime of the current Parliament which will give
local authorities news powers to encourage home owners to
maintain their properties. Earlier this week the Tenements
(Scotland) Bill was introduced which will grant new rights
to over 1.4 million home owners living in tenements and
other shared buildings. The main purpose of this bill is
to close loopholes in existing laws which often result in
essential repairs and maintenance to private properties
being delayed - sometimes for years.