Almost three quarters of members who took part in the annual survey of the National Panel of Tenants and Service Users said they are concerned about the future affordability of their rent.

And almost one third have experienced difficulties affording their rent in the last year. The level of concern about future affordability is similar to the previous survey.

Helen Shaw, the Regulator’s director of regulation, said: “The continued high level of concern about future rent affordability is not a surprise.

“We recognise that many of the drivers of increasing costs that feed into rent increases are beyond landlords’ control and that balancing affordability with tenant priorities is challenging. Many landlords have applied inflation-linked rent increases to pay for essential investment in tenant safety, stock quality and decarbonisation.

It is important that landlords continue to scrutinise their costs to ensure spending is necessary, focused on delivering tenant priorities and delivers value for money.”

A large majority of survey respondents said they have recently received information about rent increases from their landlord. Most indicated that the information was clear on the proposed increase and asked for their views.

The wider research programme explored views on reporting repairs, finances, value for money, heating, and landlord performance information. It also considered how Panel members preferred to receive information from the Regulator, as well as the experiences of people who had used homelessness services and residents of Gypsy/Traveller sites.

The National Panel is an important way for the Regulator to hear about the experiences and perspectives of people who use social landlords’ services. The findings will be of interest to all social landlords.

The research was carried out for the Regulator by Engage Scotland.

The National Panel has more than 400 members. It is open to anyone who is a social housing tenant or uses a social landlord’s services. Membership is diverse and includes people from urban and rural areas, across age bands, local authority and RSL tenants. Anyone interested in joining the Panel should contact SHR at shr@shr.gov.scot.