Evelyn Tweed MSP

During a detailed evidence session of Holyrood’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee last week, Ms Tweed raised significant concerns that the SHR is using informal methods to direct housing associations to make major governance changes, including appointing consultants, co-opting committee members, and in some cases removing board members, without the safeguards or scrutiny that apply to formal statutory intervention, as happened at Dalmuir Park Housing Association.

Committee exchanges confirmed that the Housing (Scotland) Act 2010 does not confer powers on the SHR to issue such directions outside the statutory intervention process.

Ms Tweed also highlighted the recent turnaround of Reidvale Housing Association, where the regulator and its preferred consultants had strongly promoted a transfer of engagements to a large England-based landlord. She stressed that it was sustained community mobilisation, not regulatory support, that prevented the loss of another long-standing community-controlled housing association.

She questioned how many of the community associations lost through mergers in the past decade might still be operating independently had the SHR worked constructively with committees and communities instead of defaulting to merger as the first response.

Further concerns were raised about the SHR’s reliance on a small group of high-cost consultants. Housing associations pressured to appoint them have reported being charged up to £1,200 per day plus VAT and expenses. This, Ms Tweed noted, is far out of line with fees paid for more highly qualified public sector appointments.

She further observed that the process appears designed so that only individuals with short-term crisis management experience are appointed to the SHR’s exclusive interim managers list, while more experienced long-term sector leaders are systematically excluded by design.

Ms Tweed urged tenants, communities and management committees to challenge disproportionate regulatory pressure and to make use of the new statutory appeals mechanism introduced through her amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, a reform widely recognised as strengthening fairness and accountability in the regulation of social housing.

Speaking after the session, Ms Tweed said: “The regulator has been operating for too long without meaningful scrutiny and, worse, its actions have created a climate of fear among housing professionals. That is not a good look for a regulator, and it is a major impediment to the effective management of tenants’ homes across Scotland, which are collectively worth billions of pounds.

“I am aware of cases where the SHR has insisted on meeting committee members without their professional advisers present, has failed to keep minutes, and has presented committees with a Hobson’s choice: accept directions under an informal arrangement or face statutory intervention.

“At Dalmuir Park, when the committee objected, statutory intervention appears to have been used as a punitive measure, with devastating consequences for hardworking staff and dedicated community volunteers who were effectively forced out. I am appalled by the testimony of those affected, and even more so that the board of the Scottish Housing Regulator refused to consider any form of investigation when I presented prima facie evidence of regulatory failure.

“Looking forward, I want all housing association committee members, staff and their legal advisers to know that the SHR has no power to go beyond what is set out in the 2010 Act, and to challenge them when they do. And where it does, they now have swift access to an independent judicial process capable of providing the scrutiny that has been missing.”