Statement of Compliance with the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 2019-20

Statement of Compliance with the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010

Sections 31 and 32 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (“the Act”) impose duties on Scottish public bodies to publish information on expenditure and certain other matters as soon as is reasonably practicable after the end of each financial year. We produce this statement to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Act.

As the independent regulator of social landlords, our statutory objective is to safeguard and promote the interests of current and future tenants, people who are homeless and others who use services provided by social landlords. We want to see successful social landlords delivering good outcomes for tenants, people who are homeless and others. This means that:

• landlords achieve the outcomes and standards in the Scottish Social Housing Charter;
• Registered Social Landlords are well-governed and in good financial health; and
• lenders and public funders have confidence to continue to invest in social housing.

We want to be a transparent, responsive, best value organisation. Our annual report and accounts for 2019/20 sets out the impact of our work and the outcomes we achieved, together with our associated costs. This was laid before the Scottish Parliament in October 2020.

Public Relations

We spent £116,546 on public relations in 2019/20. This is 2.7% of our total budget in the year and includes attendance at sector events, our website costs and our staff costs for producing external communications including our range of publications, social media and website.

Overseas Travel

We did not incur any costs in relation to overseas travel.

External Consultancy

We spent £34,790.12 on external consultancy in 2019/20. This equates to 0.8% of our total annual budget. This includes our legal advice costs,  programme of work with our National Panel of Tenants and support for procurement of our future IT contracts.

Payments in Excess of £25,000

Section 31(3) of the Act places a duty on public bodies to publish the amount, date, payee and subject matter of any payment made during the financial year which has a value in excess of £25,000.

Payments were in relation to our website and work to modernise and support our regulatory IT systems.

Members or employees who received remuneration in excess of £150,000

Section 31(4) of the Act places a duty on public bodies to publish the number of individuals who received remuneration in excess of £150,000.

No employee, office holder or other individual involved with SHR received remuneration in excess of £150,000 during 2019/20.

Sustainable Economic Growth

Section 32(1) (a) of the Act places a duty on public bodies to publish a statement of the steps it has taken during the financial year to promote and increase sustainable growth through the exercise of its functions.

In delivering against our published priorities, we contributed to the Scottish Government’s overall objectives and National Outcomes.

During 2019/20 our regulation contributed to:

• securing a financially sustainable housing sector that can contribute to growth through house building and maintenance activity;
• the continuing supply of good quality social sector homes and services to help accommodate Scotland’s ambitions for population growth, and to make our country a more attractive place to live and work; and
• ensuring that landlords work to prevent people becoming homeless, and so help to protect some of the most vulnerable people in Scotland.

Efficiency, effectiveness and economy

Section 32(1)(b) of the Act requires public bodies to publish a statement of the steps taken to improve efficiency, effectiveness and economy in the exercise of their functions.

Our sole source of income in 2019/20 was a grant from the Scottish Government. We spent £4.392m of our £4.392m budget, this included a £0.200m capital budget.

During 2018/19 we reviewed our Regulatory Framework. This was a comprehensive review of how we regulate, looking at all aspects of our work and processes. After extensive consultation, we published our new Regulatory Framework in February 2019, with a go-live date of 1 April 2019. The new Regulatory Framework is designed to enable us to regulate effectively and sustainably within our resources.

We began a modest recruitment programme after a period of no recruitment throughout the previous two years to respond to funding pressures. We have also made savings in our other administrative costs wherever possible. In 2019/20 around 75% of our revenue costs were staff costs, 10% were IT equipment and support and 4% was accommodation.

In March 2018 we moved into a new permanent office space, after more than two years in two temporary office spaces. This new space is delivering significant annual savings from 2018/19 onwards, around £0.150m less than we spent on our previous larger permanent office in 2015/16.

Our Business Intelligence Systems represent the majority of our IT costs. These systems support our regulatory data collection and data analysis.

In the current economic climate, we will continue to work with all involved in social housing to ensure effective regulation that protects the interests of tenants, people who are homeless and others who use the services of social landlords.