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Modernising Scotland's Social Housing: Consultation Report: Summary of Responses to Consultation Paper
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
The Process
1. The consultation paper, Modernising Scotland's Social Housing, was issued in March 2003 and covered the following areas:
- A new Scottish Social Housing Standard
- The Prudential Regime and housing capital finance
- Innovative approaches to housing finance and management
- Improving the links between housing and regeneration; the Community Ownership Programme and partial transfers.
The consultation period closed on 30 June but all late responses were included in our analysis. The text of this consultation report can be found at: www.scotland.gov.uk/consultations/housing/mssh04-00.asp
2. Around 700 copies of the paper were issued by post, including to all Scottish local authorities (leaders, chief executives, and directors responsible for housing and for finance); CoSLA; SOLACE; all registered social landlords in Scotland; the Scottish Federation of Housing Association; the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland; Shelter; tenants' groups; Council of Mortgage Lenders; the Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers; CIPFA; Audit Scotland and Homes for Scotland. Multiple copies were issued to representative groups. A web version with an on-line response form was available on the Scottish Executive website. 102 responses (6 of which were on-line responses and 14 by e-mail) to the questions posed in the consultation paper were received. The types of respondents are listed at Table 1 below.
Table 1-Distribution of responses to the Modernising Scotland's Social Housing consultation paper.
Type | Total received |
Local Authorities | 31 |
Registered Social Landlords ( RSL) | 20 |
Special Needs RSL | 3 |
Tenants' Groups | 13 |
Homelessness Groups | 4 |
Regeneration Groups | 2 |
Financial Sector | 3 |
Members of Public | 3 |
Other | 23 |
Total | 102 |
3. During the consultation period, lead officials from the Scottish Executive and Communities Scotland undertook briefing meetings with local authorities to encourage them to respond. Local authorities welcomed the opportunity to discuss the housing management and financial aspects of the consultation paper prior to submitting their formal responses.
Handling Issues
4. We received 22 comments on our handling of the consultation exercise: some were of the view that the time allowed for the consultation affected their ability to consult with stakeholders across Scotland. The consultation period was however just over the standard 3 month period.
5. We received comments on the scope of the paper; in particular, some felt that it should have taken account of the need for an additional quantity of social housing. Others felt that the paper did not go far enough in terms of neighbourhood and housing management reform.
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