On 2nd April 2026 the SHR published a summary of the outcome of its annual risk assessment of social landlords, along with engagement plans for registered social landlords (RSLs) and local authorities.

In total, 134 RSLs are compliant while two are not compliant and working towards compliance.

The summary report sets out the key strategic areas the Regulator will focus on in its engagement with social landlords this year and, this year, the report also highlights the importance of landlords ensuring that they have robust information on the condition of their homes and are assured they are complying with all of their tenant and resident safety obligations. This briefing note highlights the key outcomes relating to tenant and resident safety, although you can read the full publication here.

Each year the Scottish Housing Regulator assesses risk in social landlords to determine what assurance it needs from them and what they may need to improve.

The latest publication from SHR sets out which risks they will focus on; we have summarised the content of the risk assessment in this document, specifically focusing on tenant and resident safety, but you can read the full information here.

On 31st March 2025 the SHR published updated engagement plans for all registered social landlords (RSLs) and local authorities as well as a summary report which shows that the majority of RSLs comply with the Regulatory Standards.

The summary report also sets out the main risks and strategic challenges facing social landlords and tenants including underlining the importance of landlords meeting the Scottish Housing Quality Standard and statutory requirements on tenant and resident safety.

In this briefing note we highlight the key outcomes relating to tenant and resident safety, although you can read the full publication here.

We have reviewed the publication issued by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) on 14th January 2025 and extracted information relevant to the NEW tenant and resident safety indicators only.

Please read the SHR publication in full to ensure you fully understand the requirements.

The information in this bulletin has been extracted, to focus on tenant and resident safety, from the SHR publication entitled ‘The risks we will focus on - November 2024’ which can be downloaded, in full, here.

Each year, the SHR assesses risk in social landlords to determine what assurance they need from them and what they may need to improve. In their ‘The risks we will focus on – November 2024’  publication the SHR describes which risks they will focus on.

It is clear that landlords have a range of statutory obligations in this area, so the SHR will (rightly so) continue with their focus on tenant and resident safety.

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All social landlords are required to submit to the Scottish Housing Regulator an Annual Assurance Statement (Statement) about their compliance with regulatory requirements; the most recent Statement was provided by landlords by the end of October 2023.

On 31st July, the Regulator shared a thematic review which sets out their findings following their recent visits to nine Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and four local authority landlords to find out more about the self-assurance work they did to enable them to submit their Statement.

One aspect of the visits for the Regulator was to focus particularly on how landlords assured themselves about meeting their tenant and resident safety duties.

In this e-bulletin, we focus on the tenant and resident safety element of the thematic review and pull out some of the key findings.

There have been updates to two gas safety technical standards made in June 2024 which are relevant to landlords and providers of social housing, which are now in place:

1. Gas Safe technical bulletin 055 (TB055) – Duties of a landlord has been revised and republished on 24 June 2024 and the previous version has now been withdrawn.

2. IGEM/G/11 Edition 2 – Gas industry unsafe situations procedure (GIUSP) with amendments July 2022 and June 2024 and the previous version has now been withdrawn.

This e-bulletin brings you some learning from ‘South of the Border’ where the Housing Ombudsman Service have reviewed a number of cases relating to damp and mould.

The Housing Ombudsman Service is an independent and impartial service that considers complaints from residents living in social housing (in England). All local authorities and registered social housing providers must be members of the Housing Ombudsman Scheme.

The Housing Ombudsman’s approach to investigating and determining complaints is to decide what is fair in all the circumstances of the case. This is set out in the Housing Act 1996 and the Housing Ombudsman Scheme (the Scheme) and the Ombudsman considers the evidence and looks to see if there has been any ‘maladministration’, for example whether the landlord has failed to keep to the law, followed proper procedure, followed good practice or behaved in a reasonable and competent manner.