As one of the most scrutinised pieces of legislation in Scottish Parliament history, the Housing Bill is finally set to become law - and thanks to SFHA’s influence, housing associations and co-operatives should soon benefit from greater support in preventing homelessness.

With over 600 amendments at Stage 2 and over 350 amendments at Stage 3, keeping track of the bill has been a task in itself! And whether it’s looking back to our Housing Bill and Beyond Conference when the bill was first announced, through to our briefings to various committees at each stage of the process, SFHA has been actively involved from the outset in shaping this legislation to work for housing associations, co-operatives, and tenants.

The bill was initially introduced to the Scottish Parliament in Spring 2024 by then minister for tenants’ rights, Patrick Harvie MSP, with much of its aims focusing on rent controls in the private rented sector and strengthening homelessness prevention.

Many of the bill’s other intentions, such as greater rights for tenants to decorate homes and keep pets, are, of course, rights social tenants already enjoy thanks to the secure, warm and affordable homes provided by their housing association or co-operative.

On rent controls, although the legislation was primarily focused on the private rented sector, there was a significant risk that the bill would enforce rent controls on Mid-Market Rent homes. From SFHA’s survey of housing associations, we know this would have made developments of these key affordable homes unviable. We worked with MSPs at Stage 2 and 3 to lodge amendments which would have exempted MMR, and it is a missed opportunity that this has not been written into the face of the bill. However, we did secure an in-principle commitment to an exemption for MMR, which was set out in the government’s recent Housing Emergency Action Plan and will be delivered via regulations in the Housing Bill. And from our work with MSPs across the chamber, we know there is cross-party support for this exemption.

When it comes to the homelessness prevention objectives of the legislation, SFHA was broadly supportive of these and successfully influenced a number of measures in this regard. As a result of our lobbying, the Bill is set to provide greater clarity around the role of relevant bodies- including RSLs - around ‘Ask and Act’ duties. We know that the best way to tackle homelessness is to prevent it from happening in the first place.

So, we’re pleased that the Bill will now mean housing associations have access to more information and can coordinate better with other bodies such as local authorities, the NHS, and the police in carrying out these Ask and Act duties for tenants at risk of homelessness. Another aspect of the Bill in terms of homelessness prevention will be removing the intentionality test in homelessness assessments.  We look forward to engaging with the Scottish Government on this in the coming weeks and months.

As well as the legislation, we are pleased that the Scottish Government and MSPs across the political spectrum are listening to SFHA and our members on strengthening and funding crucial homelessness prevention work. We’re seeing this through an increased focus on tenancy sustainment, and we are proud to administer the Upstream Tenancy Sustainment Fund, which is supporting tenants to stay in their homes right across the country. And the Scottish Government’s Housing Emergency Action Plan also included welcome funding for housing associations for Housing First, again strengthening efforts to tackle homelessness.

We are also still waiting for the Scottish Government to deliver the second part of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021. We were fully supportive of amendments to bring this part of the Act into force via the Housing Bill. Despite the amendment failing to get through, we were pleased that the cabinet secretary has stated her intention to bring these regulations into force by Christmas. This must be delivered urgently to support housing associations and victim-survivors of domestic abuse.

Another area of the bill where SFHA’s work will benefit housing associations is through our support of the amendment, which will create an independent appeals process for decisions made by the Scottish Housing Regulator. SFHA believes this will make the system fairer and more transparent, and builds on our previous research with Altair, which reviewed the SHR’s regulatory framework.

There is still more detail to follow on what the Housing Bill - soon to be Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 - will mean for housing associations. On issues such as introducing requirements on responding to damp and mould, we look forward to working with the Scottish Government to get greater clarity on what this means in practice. It’s important to note that housing associations far outperform the timescales which have already been introduced for legislation in England.

This year’s Annual Report on the Charter showed housing associations again resolving both emergency and non-emergency repairs quicker than before, as tenant satisfaction with the quality of homes again increased.

As the voice of Scotland’s housing associations, SFHA looks forward to the introduction of the Act and will keep fighting for our members and their tenants’ rights to enjoy warm, secure and affordable homes.