Engagement plan from 15 August 2025 to 31 March 2026

Why we are engaging with Blochairn Housing Association Ltd (Blochairn) 

We are engaging with Blochairn about its governance, financial health, financial management, planned organisational changes, stock quality and tenant and resident safety. 

In October 2022, following an independent governance review, Blochairn identified a number of areas of non-compliance with regulatory requirements including the Standards of Governance and Financial Management (the Standards). The areas of non-compliance included business planning, risk management, the governing body’s understanding of its role and its effective control of decision making within the organisation, the quality of the information provided to the governing body, tenant and resident safety, internal audit and internal processes and policies.  

Blochairn’s senior officer left the organisation in October 2022, and it appointed an interim senior officer in November 2022. Blochairn completed a strategic options appraisal (SOA) which identified that Blochairn was not financially viable in the medium term. 

In February 2023 we changed Blochairn’s regulatory status to ‘non-compliant – working towards compliance’. We assessed that Blochairn did not comply with Standards one, two, three, four, five and six. Blochairn developed an improvement plan to address the serious weaknesses in its governance.  

In March 2023 Blochairn decided that in order to address its failures, it was in the best interests of its tenants and other service users to transfer to another Registered Social Landlord (RSL). Blochairn identified a potential transfer partner and started to develop transfer proposals. Blochairn commissioned a stock condition survey (SCS) in July 2023 to inform the transfer process. The SCS identified the need for increased investment in Blochairn’s homes.  

In December 2023 Blochairn submitted a notifiable event about a potentially serious tenant and resident safety issue. Blochairn had established that an independent investigation in December 2019 had identified potentially serious fire safety risks affecting a 2011 development of four blocks of properties at Blochairn Place. The blocks comprised just under a third of Blochairn’s homes. The investigation had been carried out on three of the four blocks. As a result of longstanding weaknesses in its approach to records management, Blochairn has been unable to confirm when it became aware of the investigation or the potential fire safety risks at Blochairn Place. Blochairn is addressing its records management issues and in May 2025 located internal documentation relating to potential fire safety risks dating back to December 2020.    

In December 2023 Blochairn commissioned a review of the 2019 investigation which completed in January 2024 and recommended that a Fire Risk Assessment of External Walls (FRAEW) should be carried out to establish the risk presented in each of the three blocks. In January 2024 Blochairn decided to proceed with a FRAEW on only one of the blocks.  

As a result of the potential fire safety risks, Blochairn was unable to progress its transfer plans until it concluded the FRAEW. It needed to first establish the fire safety risks, any interim and permanent remediations required and the impact of this on its business and financial plans. Blochairn initially advised that the FRAEW on the one block would complete in March 2024.  

By April 2024, the FRAEW had not been completed. We raised concerns with Blochairn about the potentially serious and urgent risks to tenant and resident safety and we sought assurance about Blochairn’s capacity to deal with its increasingly complex range of issues at the required pace. Blochairn confirmed in April 2024 that it assessed it had sufficient capacity. We continued to engage with Blochairn about completion of the FRAEW.  

In September 2024 Blochairn told us that it had completed its governance improvement plan.   

The FRAEW was completed in September 2024 and updated in October 2024. It concluded that the overall risk presented in the one block was a ‘high medium/significant risk’. It recommended that the Fire Risk Assessment (FRA) for the block should be updated to take account of the FRAEW findings.  

In October 2024 the updated FRA gave the block a ‘substantial’ risk rating and set out 19 recommended actions. It rated 15 of the actions as ‘high priority’ and the remainder ‘medium priority’. Blochairn told us that the remedial actions required to resolve the fire safety risks would have a material impact on its financial position.  

In November 2024 Blochairn engaged with the Scottish Government about the fire safety risks and the impact on its financial position. The Scottish Government asked Blochairn to commission Single Building Assessments (SBA) to establish the risk presented in all four blocks. 

We asked Blochairn to provide us with assurance that it had plans to address the immediate financial risks it faced.  In response, Blochairn submitted cashflow projections that outlined the estimated costs for the remedial work, showing that it would be unable to cover the projected expenses needed to resolve the issues. 

Blochairn was unable to provide us with sufficient assurance about its capacity to address its financial position including the anticipated liquidity challenges, managing its obligations to lenders, including ensuring covenant compliance, and engaging with other stakeholders, such as Scottish Government, regarding potential funding for cladding remediation. 

Blochairn was slow to identify financial risks, had made errors in its financial assumptions and was reviewing its medium/long term financial models.  These issues had heightened Blochairn’s overall financial risk exposure. Despite repeated requests since October 2024, Blochairn only submitted rolling 12 month cashflow forecasts in March 2025.  

In December 2024 Blochairn asked SHR to direct a transfer of its assets under section 67 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 (the Act) to another RSL on the grounds that Blochairn’s viability was in jeopardy for financial reasons and to protect the interests of tenants and service users. Blochairn told us that it was unable to invest in its properties and that continuing with all necessary remediation works to address tenant and resident safety issues would put it in financial jeopardy. 

We considered Blochairn’s request. We assessed that Blochairn was unable to deliver its voluntary transfer strategy because it had not yet established the fire safety risks and resulting liabilities for any RSL transfer partner. We also assessed that whilst Blochairn had taken some steps to address the serious and urgent risks to tenant and resident safety and its financial viability, it had not dealt with this in a sufficiently comprehensive way and with the required pace, to minimise the risk to the safety of its tenants and residents. Blochairn was also unable to provide sufficient clarity around its financial position.  

In January 2025 we set out our serious concerns to Blochairn. We noted that we were considering using our statutory powers of intervention to provide Blochairn with additional capacity to address its serious and urgent tenant and resident safety and financial viability issues at the required pace.    

In response to our serious concerns, Blochairn told us that it would take steps to ensure it had capacity to address its serious failures at pace. In February 2025 Blochairn appointed a transfer lead officer. Blochairn’s interim senior officer left the organisation in February 2025 and the transfer lead officer’s remit was extended to include the role of interim senior officer. Two governing body members also resigned in February 2025, and Blochairn appointed two individuals with appropriate skills and experience to the governing body in March 2025. Another governing body member then resigned in March 2025 and Blochairn co-opted another individual with appropriate skills and experience to the governing body in June 2025. Blochairn currently has nine governing body members, an interim senior officer and five temporary members of staff.  

In March 2025 Blochairn provided us with pre-transfer and fire safety action plans. These included an update on progress with the 19 FRA recommendations for the one block; eight were complete and 11 were in progress, 10 of which were high priority. Blochairn also commissioned SBAs for all affected blocks on 12 March 2025 and started to develop a communications plan covering key stakeholders including tenants and residents. 

Blochairn reviewed its governance arrangements in March 2025, identified further longstanding areas of non-compliance with the Standards and put in place a plan to address these. Blochairn commissioned an updated SCS in April 2025. The SCS identified the need for increased investment in Blochairn’s homes, a lower level of SHQS compliance than previously reported and significant outstanding repairs, including health and safety repairs. Blochairn confirmed that it was addressing the repairs as a priority and that historic underinvestment in its stock, alongside the suspension of its maintenance programme (excluding health and safety repairs) in 2023 (as a result of its financial position), had caused its current asset issues. Blochairn appointed additional asset support in June 2025 to help address these issues.  

In May 2025 Blochairn told us that it had over a number of years provided inaccurate information in its Annual Return on the Charter. This included information about its rents. Blochairn corrected this information in its 2024/25 ARC.  

In May 2025 the SBA assessor advised that whilst the SBA investigations had been completed to planned timescales, they had identified potential structural issues in all three blocks of flats in Blochairn Place. These issues required to be investigated and the findings incorporated within the SBAs. As a result, the SBAs were placed on hold. Blochairn continued to progress fire safety works and other transfer plans where they were not impacted by the emerging structural issues.  

Blochairn’s initial investigations identified that tenants had raised concerns about structural issues in 2022/23. At that time, a structural engineer recommended interim repairs be carried out and that further investigation was required. Blochairn carried out the interim repairs but did not progress any further investigations.   

Blochairn commissioned a structural survey in June 2025. The structural survey reported in July 2025 and found significant longstanding defects in all three blocks and that these defects posed critical health and safety risks, particularly from balcony fixings. The investigation made a range of recommendations including significant remedial works and implementation of quarterly monitoring of aspects of the buildings’ structure. Blochairn is considering the findings, which will also be incorporated within the SBAs due to report in August 2025. In the meantime, it has put in place urgent measures to mitigate balcony safety risks and is doing further work to understand the reasons for these problems.   

Blochairn confirmed in April 2025 that it had commissioned a fire protection works contractor in late 2024 to carry out the FRA recommendations in one block, and to carry out FRAs and compartmentation surveys in the other two flatted blocks, and carry out all necessary remedial works. The FRAs and surveys have identified further fire safety risks and required remedial works which are being progressed.