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The Consultation
This consultation seeks your views on the guidance that the Scottish Government should give to local authorities about how they implement powers and carry out duties in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006. These powers and duties have been created to help address living conditions in the privately owned housing stock in Scotland. A high proportion of private housing needs repair work as a result of underlying problems or poor maintenance, and large numbers of disabled people would be able to live more independently if their houses were adapted.
The Act gives local authorities the lead role in addressing these issues. The Scottish Government supports them in this with guidance, funding and the provision of support in various ways.
Ministers have powers to issue guidance. Some of the guidance is statutory, which means that local authorities must, by law, have regard to it (see volume 1 page 13 for a fuller explanation). Ministers also have powers to make regulations for several purposes under the 2006 Act. If they use these powers, the resulting regulations have the force of law. They propose to use some of those powers alongside the guidance. This consultation covers those proposed regulations too.
There have recently been important changes to the way local government and the Scottish Government will work together, and to the way local government is funded. These are set out in sections 8 and 17 of the Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007, and supported by a concordat between the Scottish Government and local government 1.
We have tried here to strike the right balance between national and local policies and between regulations, guidance and support. We are very keen to hear views on whether, in the policy area of private sector housing quality, we have got that balance right for the future and in line with the spirit of the Budget Spending Review and Concordat.
The bulk of this consultation paper is a draft of the proposed guidance and regulations. We have set it out as it is likely to appear in its final form, although of course we expect to make various changes in the light of the comments we receive during the consultation. We have also included comments throughout the paper to help explain what we are proposing, and have included questions on particular issues.
There are certain core considerations that we hope you will bear in mind when reading the draft guidance and when commenting on it:
- the policy objectives (see volume 1 page 6);
- the roles of central and local government in achieving the objectives;
- the impact on the individual and the community;
- effective and cost-efficient delivery.
Although we have specified a number of particular questions in the document, we would welcome comment on any aspect of the proposed guidance and regulations - preferably on the form provided, to help us analyse responses.
The draft guidance is written for local authorities and we hope that each authority will make a corporate response. But that does not mean we only want to hear from local authorities. We warmly welcome comments from other organisations and private individuals since the guidance is, ultimately, about the housing conditions of individual owners and their families in Scotland.
We established an advisory group to advise us on the guidance. The group's membership reflected the range of public, voluntary and private sector bodies with an interest in the new powers. We are grateful to group members for their advice throughout the drafting process. The members from external organisations were:
PROJECT ADVISORY GROUP MEMBERS
Gerry Begg, COSLA (Scottish Borders Council)
Gillian Campbell / Gillian Edwards, COSLA (City of Edinburgh Council)
Ian Donald / Alan Maxwell, Property Managers Association Scotland Limited
Nick Fletcher, Chartered Institute of Housing (Scotland)
Kennedy Foster, Council of Mortgage Lenders
Richard Hamer, Ownership Options in Scotland
Lisa Muinonen, Private Rented Housing Forum
David Ogilvie / Debbie Baird, Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
Euan Paige / Chris Oswald, Disability Rights Commission
Annabelle Ridley, Citizens Advice Scotland
Robert Thomson, Care and Repair Scotland
Jennifer Wallace, Scottish Consumer Council
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