Tenant Focus Group Summer Meeting 2026
Officers were delighted to welcome members of the Tenant Focus Group for their quarterly gathering on Thursday 2nd July 2026. The irony was not lost on members that part of the agenda was to discuss the ‘summer newsletter’, on a day where those in attendance would be forgiven for thinking it was November, braving the near-gale force winds and horizontal rain to attend!
Annual performance - 25/26
The Association submitted its Annual Return on the Scottish Social Housing Charter to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) on Thursday 28th May 2026. This submission detailed the key performance indicators as stipulated by the SHR, focusing on the delivery of frontline services to tenants during 2025/26.
Those in attendance discussed the main elements of the submission, making comparisons to the performance in the 2024/25 year, making comparisons with the other social landlord in Shetland, the SIC Housing Service and making comparisons to the national average, as reported by Scotland’s Housing Network. Members noted the additional indicators introduced this year, including statistics on the resolution of damp and mould and the number of properties void at year end.
Complaints & compliments - 25/26
The Association follows the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman model for complaints handling. A summary of complaints received during the reporting year were discussed, with the majority of the 24 complaints relating to the delivery of maintenance services, both planned and routine. This is not unexpected, given the Association completes over 1700 reactive repairs every year, along with a substantial planned maintenance programme. The Association looks to embrace complaints and sees this as a key way to improve service delivery. Officers also shared some detail of the compliments register, a record of appreciation and positive feedback received from tenants and applicants alike.
New Tenants survey – 25/26
All new tenants will be invited to complete an online survey, to reflect on their first weeks and months in their new HHA home. The full set of results from the year were shared, with the following results;
- 95% of tenants were satisfied or very satisfied with the standard of their new home
- 95% of tenants rated the rent due as either good or very good value for money
- 100% of tenants felt HHA provided sufficient support and information in the build up to, and start of their tenancy
Summer Newsletter
Members held a discussion to agree the content of the summer newsletter, including a proposal to have a feature each quarter on a service provider in Shetland who can offer support to HHA tenants. Given The Compass Centre (formerly known as Rape Crisis) have just celebrated their 10th birthday, they will feature in this edition. Tenants also reminded staff the importance of highlighting investment in properties through the planned maintenance contracts, to show all tenants the good work being done to keep properties in excellent condition.
New legislation
There are two new significant pieces of legislation due to be enacted in Scotland in the coming months, which will have an impact on all social housing tenants.
Domestic Abuse (Protection)(Scotland) Act 2021
This legislation comes into effect as of 1st August 2026 and will provide landlords with a power to take action where a tenant has engaged in domestic abuse. All tenants will receive further information on this before the commencement of the Act, including information on support available.
Investigation and Commencement of Repair (Scotland) Regulations 2026
This legislation places more definitive timescales for landlords taking action to resolve cases of damp and mould. The Association already has in place a very robust procedure for this, with existing practice within the parameters of the new legislation.