Housing and Community Safety Committee chair, Cllr Amber Dunbar, and vice-chair, Cllr Donald Gatt, signed the assurance statement last week.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 commands that Scottish Government ministers set the standards and outcomes that all social landlords should aim to achieve when performing their housing activities through the Scottish Social Housing Charter.

The Charter came into effect on 1 April 2012. It was reviewed during 2016 and 2021. The current revised Charter continues to apply until the Scottish Parliament approves a further revised Charter.

The Charter ensures landlords are responsible and accountable for delivering positive outcomes and services for tenants and service users in areas including homelessness, complaint management, tenant and resident safety and human rights and equality.

Producing an annual assurance statement is one of the regulatory requirements set by the Scottish Housing Regulator to ensure social landlords comply with or are working towards compliance with the Charter.

The Regulator will consider the statement as part of its regulatory risk assessment before publishing an engagement plan for each social landlord.

Cllr Dunbar said tenants sit at the core of the pledge: “It gives me great pleasure to sign the annual assurance statement on behalf of Moray Council. It demonstrates that we, as a responsible social landlord, once again pledge to comply with all the necessary regulations and standards that our tenants can expect to receive from us.”