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Volume 1
Chapter 3 Setting the Local Strategy

Introduction

3.1. At the heart of preparations for implementing the powers and duties in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 is the process of setting local strategies for the private sector. This chapter of the guidance sits alongside, but does not supplant, guidance on Local Housing Strategies. It focuses on some of the particular issues that apply to the private housing sector.

3.2. The Act does not require the production of a separate document, though some authorities may choose to do so. The authority's strategic intentions should be set out in the Local Housing Strategy, as required by section 10 of the Act, and reflected in the statement of criteria for assistance required by section 72 of the 2006 Act. This chapter is about developing the strategic intentions, however they may be incorporated in documents published by the authority. It should be read in the context of guidance on Local Housing Strategies ³. It does not supplant that guidance.

The national context

3.3. National policy is driven by the evidence on the nature of private sector housing across Scotland. Each local authority should be aware of the national picture, to understand Ministers' priorities and how local priorities fit with and alongside national priorities.

3.4. Too many houses in Scotland are in poor condition. Most of these are in the private sector.

• around 33% of Scotland's 1.64 million private sector houses require urgent repairs ⁴

This means that too many private owners are not doing what they should to maintain and repair their houses. The result is large numbers of run-down houses and under-investment in maintaining the fabric of the nation's homes.

• the cost of addressing comprehensive repairs costs in private sector housing is around £5 billion

The results are poor living conditions and declining communities. This builds up bigger problems for the future.

3.5. The situation varies widely across the country, both in scale and nature. The cities have high numbers of tenements a century or more old that are at the core of the community and its character. Many of these tenements have major problems of disrepair. Rural cottages are too often crumbling for lack of investment. Many non-traditional houses have treatable but significant problems.

• disrepair is worst in pre-1919 houses, 48% of which require urgent repairs, and in private rented housing, 46% of which requires urgent repairs
• tenements, where multiple ownership complicates repair work, have particular problems - 36% of the 400,000 private sector homes of all ages in tenements are in critical disrepair - 150,000 houses

Owners' incomes vary widely; house condition problems tend to be worse in low-income areas and in privately-rented property. So there is a great variety of situations needing a range of actions.

3.6. There are pressures in the housing system that tend to increase problems of disrepair. The private sector has risen from under half the houses in Scotland in 1980 to three-quarters currently, increasing ownership in lower income groups. Many owners who bought under the Right to Buy are on relatively low incomes. Many owners have increasing difficulty with repairs as they and their houses age. The rising cost of house purchase is taking a bigger proportion of new owners' income, creating a pressure to spend less on repairs.

• around 40,000 new owners take on responsibility for a house each year.

3.7. Many owners live in good houses that are unsuitable for someone in the household who is disabled or frail through age.

• at a national level, around 90,000 owners report that their homes require adaptation to help them live independently

If a disabled person seeks help and the local authority is satisfied that the person has a need and it is necessary for the local authority to meet that need, then it has a duty to make arrangements for various services ⁵, whether to help adapt the house or for other purposes. Helping people in this situation needs actions that take account of individual needs and the range of options available.

3.8. If current problems with private sector housing conditions are to be overtaken actions are required to suit the needs of individuals and local communities and they need to reach many more owners than at present.

• the previous approach, despite substantially increasing the resources that local authorities were applying in 2003/04, reached around 25,000 owners per year by providing grant, compared with the 540,000 private houses requiring urgent repair
• the approach introduced by the 2006 Act aims to be more cost-effective in stimulating action by owners, and to reach many more owners than in the past.

The local strategic approach

3.9. The local authority already has an established process of strategic planning to achieve housing outcomes, in its Local Housing Strategy ( LHS). The LHS covers all sectors, but the requirements in section 10 of the 2006 Act reinforce its application to the private sector. The LHS must show how the authority's policies on enforcement and assistance will improve private housing conditions. Some authorities may also choose to prepare a separate document as a Private Sector Strategy, although there is no obligation to do so. The statutory guidance in volume 5 emphasises the need for consistency between the statement of criteria required by section 72 of the Act and the LHS, especially at its next review due to be submitted in 2009.

Outcomes

3.10. Ministers wish to achieve the following across Scotland:

• a significant reduction in the proportion of private sector houses that are sub-standard; and
• a significant increase in the number of disabled people who are able to live independently in the private sector as a result of house adaptations.

This guidance suggests ways in which local authorities can contribute to these objectives. Authorities should consider how these objectives can support broader strategic goals in their own areas. Indeed, they may wish to include these as targets built into local indicators, which support National Outcomes including those which state "We value and enjoy our natural and built environment and protect it and enhance it for future generations" and "We live in well-designed, sustainable places where we are able to access the amenities and services we need".

3.11. The local role and significance of the private housing sector varies considerably across the country. It reflects the differing histories of communities, for example in relation to the extent and timing of industrial growth and decline, agricultural change, patterns of wealth and poverty, transport links, council house building and sale and so on. As a result, private sector housing conditions vary in a complex way. The detail behind the appropriate local objectives is likely to vary between local authorities and often within local authority areas.

Policy fit

3.12. The authority's strategic approach for private housing should fit with wider strategies including the Community Plan and community care strategy, because of the impact that housing conditions have on the well-being of occupants and the wider community. Relevant partner organisations should have the opportunity to have an effective input.

3.13. For example, assistance with adaptations or the purchase of a more suitable house may reduce or remove the need for a disabled person to receive community care or medical care, while giving that person the benefits of greater independence in their own home. This area of activity is therefore relevant to at least housing, social work and health interests.

3.14. The authority's strategy should link to its disability, gender and race equality schemes, as the new powers and duties will be relevant to them. It should also refer to the broader equality strategy if the authority has one. The authority should bear in mind the equality requirements in section 106 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 and section 185 of the 2006 Act.

3.15. The approach should take account of economic and regeneration policies, and policies to handle the expected impact of demographic change, from ageing, migration and other factors. It should tie in with policies on sustainability, recognising on the one hand that the retention of houses is generally a more sustainable option than demolition and replacement, but on the other that older housing is generally less energy efficient.

3.16. The approach should in particular fit with the authority's wider approach to public service reform, including planning for how services are delivered. In particular the authority should aim to simplify and streamline service delivery wherever possible, taking account of corporate policies and outcomes and specific rural dimensions of service priorities and delivery, where relevant. A more personalised approach to service delivery increases the level of contact with individuals. This can support income maximisation strategies that aim to increase the take-up of benefits, and help to identify the need for action on wider social problems such as social exclusion, frailty and so on.

3.17. The authority should explore the potential for efficiencies and economies through joint or coordinated delivery, management or funding within the authority or with delivery partners including other authorities.

3.18. Of course, house owners, other members of the public and other interested parties should have an opportunity to influence priorities and strategies. We deal with this further below (paragraph 3.50).

Evidence

3.19. The Local Housing Strategy process is intended to provide a full cross-sector analysis of strategic housing needs and priorities. To develop the next LHS, including those parts which are now required by section 10 of the 2006 Act, and to prepare the separate statement of assistance required under section 72 of the 2006 Act, each authority should look closely at the evidence that is relevant to its area. It may well need to enhance that evidence for the future (see chapter 5), since our research ⁶ shows that most authorities have poor evidence about their private housing sector. Building the evidence base takes time and in the meantime authorities will need to work on the best evidence available. This may mean using other surrogate evidence that gives an indication of the position without directly measuring it.

3.20. The evidence sought should give a picture of housing conditions. But the impact of poor housing conditions - and the reason for local authority intervention - goes beyond the fact of the physical condition of buildings. In order to determine priorities for action it is also important to have evidence of the socio-economic factors that determine the significance of private housing condition for the people living in the houses, and their ability to do something about it.

3.21. Similar considerations apply to disabled people, with the difference that priority for action is often not a function of poor housing condition, but of particular needs that a house of otherwise acceptable standard cannot support without adaptation. So the evidence to inform priorities is primarily about the incidence and nature of disability, but it needs to be linked to the nature of the houses. For example, the practical issues for a community with a high proportion of frail elderly people are likely to be different in a rural area compared with an urban tenement area.

3.22. It is also important to have a combined view of houses in poor condition and houses that should be adapted to the needs of disabled people since evidence of overlapping problems may indicate particular priorities for action.

3.23. Evidence should look to the medium and long term as well as the current position, taking account, for example, of demographic trends towards an ageing population and the effect such trends are likely to have in different areas.

3.24. Evidence on these matters can be more difficult to obtain in the private sector than in the social sector because neither the authority nor a social landlord with which the authority could work has a direct relationship with the owner or a direct record of the property and its maintenance.

Resources

3.25. The strategy and the resources to support it are interdependent, and resource plans should be matched to plans for delivering the strategy. More detail is given in chapter 4.

3.26. The authority should have a well developed plan for services in the short, medium and longer term, to provide a time frame in which the condition of private sector housing will to be addressed. This should allow resources to be planned over a similar timescale rather than on a reactive basis. Clearly, plans will become less definite the longer the timescale but a view of the future for, say, the next 5 to 10 years is necessary to inform the detailed planning for the next 1 to 3 years.

3.27. Coping with the different phases and demands of initial implementation and delivery will need flexibility in resourcing and the mix of capital and revenue use of available funds. Arrangements should take into account changes in the resourcing framework, such as the new arrangements for Private Sector Housing Grant (paragraph 4.23) and the expectation that authorities will be able to call on new loan vehicles which have funding support at a national level (see volume 5).

3.28. The task of resourcing the implementation of the new powers and duties should be considered as a whole. The most effective implementation may mean working across traditional corporate boundaries. It may also mean reviewing the application of corporate policies such as those for staff recruitment in order to allow the package of changes to be introduced in a timely, managed and cost-effective way.

3.29. The scope for delivering the strategy may be increased by organising and managing the use of external resources, such as commercial or voluntary sector contractors or shared service arrangements with other authorities, perhaps with the support of The Improvement Service. For smaller authorities in particular this may be the best way of providing for new skills and activities.

Building the strategy

3.30. The evidence gives a basis on which to consider priorities. Analysing the evidence should show the most severe problems and the most acute ones. But priorities for action must also be influenced by what can be done. So it is important to consider the options for action, what their impact would be and how practicable they are in terms of resources and timing. The choice of actions and their relative priority should be derived from the evidence and driven by the desired outcomes but thoroughly informed by a clear understanding of what they can achieve and when.

3.31. It is important to think laterally about the options available, particularly to see if an option suggested by one problem can, if suitably pursued, have wider benefits. For example, advice and assistance on moving to another house could resolve a problem of independence for a disabled person but could also extend to resolving difficulties for older people in handling outstanding repairs and to the release of family housing by down-sizing.

3.32. It is also important to consider the time frame for the various options. Some actions will deal with urgent priorities but other actions may need to be taken at the same time to begin to have an effect on longer-term priorities.

3.33. Many options for action will have secondary impacts and these should be considered, whether their effect is positive or negative. The combined effect of options should also be considered - where, for example, it is sensible to encourage low-priority work to be carried out where this is in conjunction with high-priority work.

3.34. The priorities and options for action should together build into a strategy, which must be clear and complete enough to allow the authority to define its criteria for assistance in a statement under section 72 of the 2006 Act ( vol. 5 ch. 4).

3.35. The process of building a strategy is complex and inevitably involves a degree of subjective judgement. The judgement will reflect underlying assumptions and influences from the area's history, the impact of social and political traditions and outlook and the views of the local community. It is helpful if the authority reflects on and expresses the issues and values that it thinks are important and relevant to the judgements that are being made. This should help mutual understanding and the exchange of views with organisations and individuals outside the council. The key judgements made should be clear and transparent because they are at the heart of accountability in the democratic process.

Enforcement / assistance balance

3.36. The powers for dealing with housing conditions in the private sector divide into powers to enforce the carrying out of works and powers to assist owners to carry out works. The authority should not use these two sets of powers in isolation from each other. They are two routes to the same end result and should be considered together when the authority decides how to deliver the strategic outcomes. Similarly, the authority should avoid, if at all possible, locating the assistance and enforcement functions in different parts of the organisation as this is likely to create barriers to an integrated operational approach.

3.37. The authority should decide the balance between assistance and enforcement and include this in its statement of assistance under section 72 and in the strategies it develops for the Local Housing Strategy.

3.38. Local authorities have had assistance and enforcement powers for many years. However, the 2006 Act changes the nature of each of those sets of powers and the authority should consider the balance between them afresh in this changed context. In particular:

• wider, more flexible powers of assistance allow the authority to target appropriate assistance to deal with the difficulty an owner faces
• serving a work notice no longer results in an obligation to pay grant
• maintenance orders and Housing Renewal Areas allow the authority to require preventative works.

3.39. These changes mean that there is greater scope to assist a willing owner effectively. There is also more opportunity to take effective and preventative enforcement action against unwilling owners in a way that will not reward them for inaction.

3.40. In general, the authority should therefore look initially to deal with poor housing condition by persuasion and encouragement backed up by assistance that the owner will find to be effective. It should resort to enforcement action only where that is necessary to achieve the action required. However, the state of private housing in Scotland justifies a greater willingness than in the past to resort to enforcement action where necessary. Removing the automatic link between statutory action and grant signals this intention in national policy. The authority's actions should make it clear that in appropriate cases the potential for enforcement is real and effective.

Applying the balance

3.41. Staff or partners delivering assistance and staff dealing with enforcement should work together so that they know where action on house condition is needed and know when matters progress to the point where enforcement is needed.

3.42. Some of the assistance tools - such as equity based loans - may not be fully available at the point that the authority moves to the use of 2006 Act powers. The authority's capacity to use enforcement powers such as maintenance orders may also not be fully developed at that stage. The strategy for the use of powers and the balance between them should take this into account by establishing the long term approach and the way in which the authority will work towards it as capacity develops.

3.43. There will always be exceptions to the general rule that assistance is preferable to enforcement. To the extent that they are predictable - for example, where moving direct to enforcement action against an absent owner enables a neighbour to gain access to do works - the authority should identify exceptions. It should also establish a process for handling the unpredictable in an open and fair way, and include it in the section 72 statement.

Q. What exceptions are there to the general rule that assistance is preferable to enforcement and how would you propose to handle them?

Disabled people

3.44. Enforcement should not generally be an issue where the authority is addressing the needs of a disabled person. However, it could be that the house is in poor condition as well as needing adaptation to suit that person's needs. In such a case it will be particularly important to seek a solution through the provision of assistance rather than through enforcement, although that will not always be possible. Where this happens, the adaptations works must be distinguished from the other works in the approval process even if they are carried out together, as different legal provisions apply to them.

The SHQS

3.45. The Scottish Housing Quality Standard ( SHQS) is a particular issue for many local authorities, affecting the way they approach private sector housing condition. This is especially true in relation to houses previously purchased under the Right to Buy.

3.46. The SHQS is a standard that all social landlords are required to work towards for their own houses, and a standard that is appropriate to housing in the 21 ^st century. It may be that an authority wishes as a matter of policy to promote the achievement of that standard in some or all houses in the existing private sector, particularly where they share common parts with social rented housing. If so, this should be explicit in its strategies and its section 72 statement.

3.47. The SHQS is not a statutory requirement for owners. So where an authority uses its powers under the 2006 Act to require an owner to carry out work, the notice should specify what work the owner needs to do to stop the house being sub-standard in terms of the definition in the 2006 Act (see vol. 2). The outcome should be that the house is no longer sub-standard on that definition.

3.48. If an authority wants to go further and use its 2006 Act powers to ensure that a privately owned house is brought up to the SHQS it should make clear to the owner the distinction between the statutory nature of essential work and the voluntary nature of any additional work. The authority may provide assistance (whether financial or non-financial) to owners to help bring the house up to the SHQS - subject to owners' willingness to participate. But authorities must be clear that their strategies, and their financial support for owners, focus on prioritising the poorest quality housing.

3.49. There may be circumstances where it is desirable for a local authority to help an owner achieve the SHQS standard, for example where a RSL is carrying out common works in a mixed tenure building. To avoid such works becoming blocked by owners who are unwilling or unable to take part, authorities should consider what, if any, assistance to offer owners, and reflect this in their section 72 statement. There should be an emphasis on advice, information, practical assistance and lending (where financial assistance is required). Assistance should support the owner in the exercise of his or her responsibilities, whether to deal with a house that is sub-standard or to comply with obligations in the title deeds. The authority would need sound justification for the use of funds in these circumstances, especially when it has powers as the former landlord. Where another landlord is involved it should consider seeking co-funding from that landlord, particularly if the works are not an obligation on the individual owner.

Q. Do you agree with this position?

Consulting on the strategic approach

3.50. The local authority should ensure that it consults and involves people widely on its strategies for addressing living conditions in the private sector, including the balance between enforcement and assistance, the approach to adaptations and the criteria contained in the section 72 statement of assistance. It may be possible to combine this activity with processes for the LHS. The authority may instead prefer to have a process focussed specifically on private sector condition. It may indeed be necessary to have a specific private sector process in order to establish a section 72 statement of assistance that will inform the LHS (see paragraph 3.9).

3.51. The authority will want to consult with those with a policy interest, such as Community Planning partners and organisations with a particular interest such as those representing disabled people or property managers. It should also aim to reach home owners, including those who are disabled or have disabled family members. The requirement to involve disabled people, which goes beyond mere consultation, is now embedded in equalities legislation. There are also legal requirements on consultation in relation to race and gender equality as the strategy is developed. There may be other hard to reach groups in the authority's area that it should also consider.

3.52. Home owners generally are not well organised as a group and the authority may need to be imaginative in tapping into suitable networks. This is an issue that is also relevant in other contexts and the authority may have existing structures such as citizens' juries or 'planning for real' practices that it can use or learn from. Standards for community engagement and supplementary 'How to Guides' are available ⁷ and may be useful.

3.53. The consultation and involvement process can itself contribute to strategic objectives by raising awareness and helping to generate a greater feeling of responsibility and a greater willingness to take action on house condition.

Monitoring and evaluation

3.54. It is of course good practice to monitor and evaluate implementation. Doing so checks that the authority is achieving or will achieve intended outcomes. It also allows the authority to adjust policies and processes if this is not the case or if the desired outcomes have to change. This applies at local level as it does at national level. Because action on private housing is a function of national and local policies and priorities, it is important that monitoring and evaluation should take place at both levels in a way that is compatible. Only then can future developments in policy and practice at one level take proper account of what is happening at the other level.

Local authorities' internal arrangements

3.55. Each authority will want to develop a framework for monitoring the day to day operation of its scheme of assistance and its use of enforcement powers. This will allow the authority to check it is using the new powers efficiently and effectively, and will allow it to assess performance and plan for continuous improvement.

3.56. In particular, the 2006 Act allows the authority the flexibility to revise its section 72 statement of assistance whenever appropriate, in the light of changing circumstances or the authority's evaluation of its effectiveness. Authorities should design monitoring and evaluation processes in a way that allows them to identify how the Scheme of Assistance is contributing to the repair and improvement of private sector housing.

3.57. Authorities will be starting from different positions. Some will have in place comprehensive monitoring arrangements for their use of existing powers under the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 and may need only to fine-tune and update these. Others may need to review their existing arrangements more fundamentally.

3.58. It is for each authority to develop a monitoring framework that suits its own circumstances, taking into account the importance of compatibility with national monitoring. There is a large body of good practice material on effective performance monitoring, both in itself and as an integral part of a best value approach ⁸, and so we do not intend to provide detailed guidance here. But we have summarised below some broad principles that authorities might find helpful.

3.59. Start early: Each authority will have a range of work connected with the introduction of the new powers, such as developing operational policies and procedures. It should consider at the early design stage how it will monitor service delivery, rather than wait until everything is up and running. This will help to embed monitoring as a core part of service delivery.

3.60. Routine management information: The authority's monitoring framework should allow it to examine key aspects of service delivery on a regular basis through routine data collection. There may occasionally be a need to carry out one-off exercises, such as for a specific evaluation exercise. But collecting routine, standard information should be at the core of the monitoring framework.

3.61. Processes and outcomes: The authority will need to think about the right mix of information to collect. This should reflect how it manages the key processes that underpin its use of the new powers. This will be particularly important as new ways of working bed in and the resource implications of working with the new powers become clear. Equally, the information will need to show the effects of the authority's actions, at both operational and strategic levels. It will also be important to capture the impact on equalities groups.

3.62. The elements monitored should allow the authority to assess whether it is meeting its policy aims for private housing. These would include objectives and targets set out in the Local Housing Strategy and the Section 72 statement.

3.63. Service standards: The Act generally does not specify timescales for the use of local powers. So, for example, there is no requirement for an authority to decide within a specific period whether to make assistance available or to issue a work notice after an initial enquiry. But it would be good practice to develop internal service standards and other performance standards for carrying out key processes. These should form part of the overall performance monitoring framework. Where relevant, details of service standards should be included in the information given to owners.

National monitoring

3.64. Just as each authority will be responsible for monitoring the impact of its policies at a local level, the Scottish Government needs to understand the national picture. So we are developing a monitoring and evaluation framework that will allow us to examine how well the legislation is working and what difference it is making. The national framework will have a number of different elements and will draw on a range of techniques. It is likely to combine ongoing monitoring and specific evaluation exercises, supported by data collection.

3.65. Collecting data nationally will help us to check how well the new legislation is working and to understand how authorities are using the new powers at a local level. It should also help to promote consistency across authorities' own local monitoring frameworks.

3.66. Local authorities currently supply a range of data on private sector housing activity through Private Sector Housing Grant ( PSHG) monitoring and housing statistical returns to the Scottish Government. The Concordat between The Scottish Government and local government notes that existing statistical data collections will continue. Part of the current data collection process involves reviewing the detail of what is collected with those it is collected from, to make sure it remains appropriate. Such a review is to be carried out in 2008 by the Scottish Government's Analytical Services Division ( ASD) and this will be an opportunity to take stock of the private housing data we collect, in the light of the 2006 Act and changes to PSHG.

3.67. The forthcoming ASD review will be conducted jointly with local authorities. Bearing in mind the existing statistics that are collected, we propose that the reviewed arrangements should cover:

• the scale of use of each enforcement power;
• the types of work carried out as a result of enforcement action;
• the number of adaptations to make a house suitable for a disabled person; and
• the scale of assistance provided under the Scheme of Assistance.

Question:

• Have we suggested the most appropriate areas for the collection of statistics in the future?

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