Housing Regulator publishes annual report and accounts for 2020/21

George Walker, the Regulator’s Chair, said: “This year, our Annual Report reflects on the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and recognises the unprecedented circumstances social landlords continue to operate in.

“Over the past year, we’ve realigned our regulatory approach to focus on supporting social landlords, the Social Housing Resilience Group and Scottish Government in its response to the pandemic.

“We worked to adjust our approach to respond to the pandemic. We made temporary adjustments to our regulatory framework, restated our Corporate Plan and worked with the Social Housing Resilience Group.

“Throughout the year, we collected and published monthly information on the impact of the pandemic to support the work of the Social Housing Resilience Group and the Scottish Government in its response to the pandemic.

“Alongside this, we continued to focus on regulating to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and service users focusing on the most critical cases and risks that emerged during the pandemic.

“Looking ahead to 2021/22 and beyond, recovery and resetting from the impact of the pandemic with be a major feature for us all. Brexit continues to present risks and uncertainties.

“Homelessness and the safety of tenants and residents will remain priorities for us, and climate change and carbon zero initiatives are high on the agenda, with COP26 as an important backdrop.

“We will continue to work with social landlords, tenants and service users, the Social Housing Resilience Group and all of our stakeholders as we all continue to work to tackle the challenges ahead.”