Why we are engaging with West Dunbartonshire Council (West Dunbartonshire)
We are engaging with West Dunbartonshire about its services for people who are homeless, tenant and resident safety and service quality.
During 2023/24, we reviewed and compared the data for all local authorities from the Scottish Government’s national homelessness statistics. We also spoke to all local authorities to gather further information and assurance about their homelessness services. To assess the risks to people who are threatened with or experiencing homelessness we will engage with all local authorities during 2024/25 with a focus on the provision of appropriate temporary accommodation.
West Dunbartonshire has told us that a significant number of its tenants’ homes do not fully comply with electrical safety requirements which came into force in early 2022 and form part of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard. West Dunbartonshire is currently progressing inspections to provide Electrical Installation Condition Reports in all of its tenants’ homes.
West Dunbartonshire has told us about challenges it has faced, including accessing tenants’ homes and the availability of contractors, which has delayed its progress to complete the outstanding works. We expect West Dunbartonshire to have appropriate plans in place to mitigate the delays in progressing these works.
To assess the risk to social landlords we have reviewed and compared the 2022/23 service quality performance of all social landlords to identify the weakest performing landlords. We will therefore engage with West Dunbartonshire about tenant satisfaction, percentage of tenancy offers refused and complaints.
What West Dunbartonshire must do
West Dunbartonshire must:
- send us the information we require in relation to its homelessness service;
- tell us about any emerging issues preventing it from fulfilling its statutory duty to provide temporary accommodation when it should and comply with the Unsuitable Accommodation Order;
- send us monthly updates on progress on achieving compliance with electrical safety requirements; and
- review its performance for tenant satisfaction, percentage of tenancy offers refused and complaints and consider what improvement action it needs to take.
What we will do
We will:
- meet with West Dunbartonshire to discuss its homelessness service and decide whether we require any additional assurance;
- meet with West Dunbartonshire to seek assurance if it does not provide temporary accommodation when it should, or if it breaches the Unsuitable Accommodation Order;
- review West Dunbartonshire’s progress on achieving compliance with electrical safety requirements and engage as necessary;
- review West Dunbartonshire’s service quality performance as part of our 2024/25 risk assessment; and
- update our published engagement plan in the light of any material change to our planned engagement with West Dunbartonshire.
Regulatory returns
West Dunbartonshire must provide us with the following annual regulatory returns:
- Annual Assurance Statement; and
- Annual Return on the Charter.
It should also notify us of any material changes to its Annual Assurance Statement, and any tenant and resident safety matter which has been reported to or is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive or reports from regulatory or statutory authorities or insurance providers, relating to safety concerns.