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Housing Minister celebrates International Tenants Day 

The spotlight will be on Scotland’s innovative approach towards empowering tenants when Housing Minister Margaret Burgess speaks at an event to celebrate International Tenants Day in Brussels.

Mrs Burgess has been invited to highlight Scotland’s progressive approach of empowering tenants to hold landlords to account for the services they deliver, at the International Union of Tenants (IUT) conference on Monday.

The IUT has identified Scotland’s framework as an example of good practice, with social landlords and tenants representatives from across Europe set to attend the event.

Scotland’s approach is set out in the Scottish Social Housing Charter which contains 16 outcomes that landlords should be delivering for their tenants and challenges all landlords to meet the performance of the best.

Mrs Burgess said:

“The Scottish Government has a long tradition of putting the interests of tenants and potential tenants at the heart of policy and decision making which is why it’s an honour to be invited to share these ideas on International Tenants Day.

“In Scotland around 590,000 households live in homes owned and managed by social landlords, so we place great importance on tenants’ rights and ensuring that tenants are able to be involved and influence decisions about their housing.

“We are clear that everyone should live in a good quality, affordable and sustainable home, and have the opportunity to be part of a thriving community.”

Mrs Burgess will also outline the significance of creating an independent Housing Regulator in Scotland which legally safeguards and promotes the interests of current and future tenants, homeless people, and others who use the services provided by social landlords.

The Scottish Social Housing Charter sets out what tenants and other customers can expect from their landlords and sets out the standards and outcomes that all social landlords should be achieving for their tenants and other customers.

It also provides the basis for the Regulator to assess and report how well landlords are performing, and where necessary the Regulator can ask poorly performing landlords to improve their performance.

Mrs Burgess will reinforce the Scottish Government’s commitment to protecting tenants by signing the European Responsible Housing Declaration at the conference.

Mrs Burgess added:

“By signing this Declaration we are building on our international reputation and showing the rest of Europe how important responsible housing is for us. It’s an opportunity to share good practice and will help to develop our relationship with our European partners.”

Barbara Steenbergen, director of EU office of the International Union of Tenants said:

“The responsible housing agreement, the first at European level, shows the strength of the sector as a motor for social innovation.

“Backed up by housing providers, tenant unions and EU key stakeholders it shows the partnership and the commitment to create social and economic returns for citizens and communities. Scotland sets a European standard in tenants empowerment based on a legal framework.

“We are honoured to welcome Mrs Burgess in Brussels and are happy to announce that the 90th anniversary of IUT will be celebrated with an international tenants’ congress in Edinburgh 2016.”

Notes To Editors

The Scottish Housing Charter is available at: http://housingcharter.scotland.gov.uk/

There are around 550 independent tenant organisations in Scotland.

The Scottish Government works in partnership with nine tenant led regional networks across Scotland in developing housing policy