The Scottish Housing Regulator today published findings from its thematic review of the self-assurance work social landlords did to enable them to submit their Annual Assurance Statement by October 2025.
The Regulator found that all the landlords they visited have embedded their self-assurance processes into their annual cycles and tenant and resident safety was a key priority for all of the landlords. It saw evidence of a comprehensive and robust self-assurance process in the majority of the landlords it visited.
All social landlords are required to submit an Annual Assurance Statement to the Scottish Housing Regulator by the end of October each year about their compliance with regulatory requirements.
This year, the Regulator visited nine landlords to explore how landlords assured themselves they complied with regulatory requirements and how they prepared their Statement. The visits also considered how landlords assured themselves about meeting their tenant and resident safety duties, and for Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), how they monitored and reported to their governing body on compliance with their financial covenants.
Helen Shaw, Director of Regulation, said, “The visits are an important way for us to meet with staff and governing body members to hear directly about the work they do to assure themselves about their compliance with regulatory requirements and their experience of producing their Statement.
The most recent visits highlight the importance of governing body/committee members ensuring they have appropriate access to allow them to review information as part of the assurance process and that they consider feedback from tenants and other service users as part of their assurance framework.
Our thematic includes examples from the landlords of their self-assurance processes which they have told us work well for them and it also sets out a number of recommendations, which we hope will assist landlords as they continue to develop their approach to self-assurance and preparing their next Statement.”
Each year the Regulator considers each landlord’s Statement as part of its annual risk assessment and publishes the outcomes of this in engagement plans around the end of March.
Read Preparing Annual Assurance Statements - a thematic review.
Notes to editors
- The Scottish Housing Regulator was established on 1 April 2011 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010. Its objective is to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and others who use local authority and RSL housing services. The Regulator operates independently of Scottish Ministers and is accountable directly to the Scottish Parliament. It assumed its full regulatory responsibilities on 1 April 2012. The Regulator consists of the Chair and eight Board members. More information about the Regulator can be found on its website at www.housingregulator.gov.scot
- SHR sets out how it regulates social landlords in its published framework – Regulation of Social Housing in Scotland.