Planned Investment
The Association has a detailed planned and rolling programme of future investment in our stock. this will ensure that over time we are replacing items within our stock to include kitchens, bathrooms, heating, new wiring, new roofs, etc.We carry out detailed stock conditions surveys every year to help us plan for the future.
Scottish Housing Quality Standard
The Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) was introduced in February 2004 and is the Scottish Government’s principal measure of housing quality in Scotland.
The SHQS is a set of five broad housing criteria which must all be met if the property is to pass SHQS. These criteria in turn consist of 55 elements and nine sub-elements against which properties need to be measured.
The purpose of introducing a minimum housing standard in Scotland is essentially to provide a ‘floor’ below which a property should ideally not fall. In the case of the social housing sector (local authority landlords and Registered Social Landlords), Scottish Government has set a policy target for those landlords to bring their stock up to every element of the standard (where applicable) by April 2015.
A tenants guide to the SHQS is available here
Barrhead Housing Association’s properties already meet the SHQS. There are some properties in mixed tenure blocks where we are not the majority owner or factor and therefore cannot meet the standard at this point in time. These properties are exempt from the 2015 target to meet SHQS.
Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing, EESSH
The Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing aims to improve the energy efficiency of social housing in Scotland. It will help to reduce energy consumption, fuel poverty and the emission of greenhouse gases. It will make a significant contribution to reducing carbon emissions by 42 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050 in line with the requirements set out in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. There has been significant consultation by the Scottish Government and the new guide has been issued and is available for download. From May 2016, we are required to report annually to the Scottish Housing Regulator on how we meet the energy efficiency standard for social housing – a copy of our first report is available here
Our progress against the 2020 target can be viewed in our Annual Performance Report available in the Scottish Housing Regulator section of this website.