The Scottish Housing Regulator has found serious failings in one of Fife Council’s Gypsy/Traveller sites. It published the finding in its updated engagement plan for the Council today.
The Regulator took action to investigate after residents of the Tarvit Mill Gypsy/Traveller site reported serious concerns about a lengthy delay to the redevelopment of the site, serious issues with the quality of the decant accommodation including health and safety concerns and lack of communication from the Council about the issues they had raised.
The Regulator investigated the concerns. It found Fife Council had failed to meet its obligations under the Scottish Social Housing Charter and that the decant site did not meet the Scottish Government’s Minimum Site Standards.
The Council has accepted the Regulator’s findings and is working constructively to address the residents' concerns and deliver the necessary improvements. Since the Regulator began engaging with the Council it has progressed a number of remedial actions and improvements to the decant site and has begun redevelopment work on the main site.
George Walker, Chair of the Regulator, said “Bringing a serious concern to us is an important way for social housing tenants to tell us about serious problems they are experiencing, where their landlord regularly and repeatedly fails to achieve the regulatory requirements for social housing and this failure affects a group of the social landlord’s tenants.
“We took action to investigate after residents at Tarvit Mill Gypsy/Traveller site reported serious concerns around lengthy delays to re-development work, issues with the quality of decant accommodation and a lack of communication.
“We will continue to engage with Fife Council as it works to address the failings and make the necessary improvements for residents at its site.”
Notes to editors
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The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) was established on 1 April 2011 under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010. Its objective is to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and others who use local authority and RSL housing services. The Regulator operates independently of Scottish Ministers and is accountable directly to the Scottish Parliament. It assumed its full regulatory responsibilities on 1 April 2012. The Regulator consists of the Chair and seven Board members. More information about the Regulator can be found on its website at www.housingregulator.gov.scot
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The Regulator sets out how it regulates social landlords in its published Regulatory framework – Regulation of Social Housing in Scotland.
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More information about how the Regulator deals with serious concerns is available in section 6 of its Regulatory Framework: https://www.housingregulator.gov.scot/for-landlords/regulatory-framework/#section-6
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SHR published more information about its factsheets for tenants and service users and landlords on reporting serious concerns here https://www.housingregulator.gov.scot/about-us/news/scottish-housing-regulator-publishes-factsheets-on-raising-serious-concerns-about-a-landlord/