Why we are engaging with Fife Council (Fife)
We are engaging with Fife about its services for people who are homeless and its performance in service quality.
COVID-19 has significantly impacted the services provided by social landlords in 2020 and will continue to influence how services are provided in 2021. We will continue to monitor, assess and report upon how each landlord is responding and we will keep our regulatory engagement under review so that we can continue to respond to the challenges of COVID-19.
We have reviewed the information on homelessness in the COVID-19 monthly returns. We will discuss with Fife the impact of the pandemic on outcomes for people who are threatened with, or are experiencing, homelessness, how it is working with its Registered Social Landlord partners to provide accommodation, and review our engagement.
Fife Council did not offer temporary accommodation to homeless people in all cases when it had a statutory duty to do so.
We reviewed and compared the 2019/20 performance of all social landlords using information from the Annual Return on the Charter and considered other information we have received from landlords in the last year in relation to tenant and resident safety. We are engaging with Fife about its management of gas safety checks.
What Fife must do
Fife must:
- provide us with the information we may require in relation to its homelessness service; and
- provide us with the information we require in relation to its gas safety checks.
What we will do
We will:
- meet with Fife to discuss its homelessness service and decide whether we require any additional assurance;
- review the information we receive from Fife about its statutory duty to complete gas safety checks and meet with it to discuss this; and
- update our published engagement plan in light of any material change to our planned engagement with Fife.
Regulatory returns
Fife must provide us with the following annual regulatory returns and alert us to notifiable events as appropriate:
- Annual Assurance Statement; and
- Annual Return on the Charter.
It should also notify us of any material changes to its Annual Assurance Statement, and any tenant and resident safety matter which has been reported to or is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive or reports from regulatory or statutory authorities or insurance providers, relating to safety concerns.