Consumer Focus Scotland welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Scottish Housing Regulator’s consultation on the regulation of social housing in Scotland.
Consumer Focus Scotland, and previously the Scottish Consumer Council, one of Consumer Focus Scotland’s predecessor bodies, have had a longstanding interest in housing issues across all sectors in Scotland from the perspective of the user. Of direct relevance to this consultation is our involvement with the Ministerial Sounding Board during the development of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010. We also have a long history of advocating increased user focus and involvement within public bodies, including scrutiny bodies; we very much welcomed the introduction of a user focus duty on public sector scrutiny bodies, including the Scottish Housing Regulator (‘the Regulator’), in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.
Our comments in relation to this consultation are limited to those areas which directly affect consumers of social housing services. We have therefore focused on user involvement in the regulation of social housing, and the proposals regarding the replacement of inspection powers.