I am delighted to be the new Chair of the Scottish Housing Regulator.
I join at a time when social landlords and their tenants and service users face significant challenges.
The economic uncertainty and volatility of the last few years has meant many tenants face economic hardship and brought increased pressures for social landlords.
Despite this challenging environment, our recently published National Report on the Scottish Social Housing Charter shows that social landlords maintained or improved performance against most of the Charter outcomes and standards.
That said, challenges remain, particularly the pressure on local authorities' homelessness services. Systemic failure, which we identified last year, continues to impact the delivery of services in some areas, with others at heightened risk of being impacted. We will continue to engage with every local authority and other stakeholders who have an interest and responsibility to tackle the growing problem of homelessness.
Last month, we also welcomed a new member, Doris Jamieson, to our board. You can read more about Doris below.
I look forward to working with social landlords, tenants and service users and all our other stakeholders as we work to tackle the challenges ahead.
Garry Coutts
Chair
