Influence of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard on planned maintenance in social housing

Abstract

In 2004, the devolved administration announced to parliament details of the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS), which set targets for bringing all social housing to a minimum tolerable standard by 2015. In this paper, the key features of the SHQS are outlined and the progress made to date by housing associations and local authorities in upgrading their properties to meet criteria in the standard is assessed. Stock condition surveys play a very important role in the development of a planned maintenance programme. Unfortunately, prior to development of the SHQS, experience of social landlords with stock condition surveys was very unsatisfactory. This research investigated recent experiences of social housing landlords with stock condition surveys and concludes that comprehensive surveys have actually been carried out and to a very high standard. They have been well structured and carried out in great detail, designed specifically with drawing up operational and strategic maintenance plans to fulfil requirements in the SHQS. What was found to be perhaps less than satisfactory is the apparent lack of a standardised property management information system that is capable of incorporating data from stock condition surveys and planned maintenance programmes. As a consequence, many social landlords have resorted to the development of bespoke systems. It should be emphasised that this conclusion is based on a limited sample of responses from local authorities and housing associations and therefore may be biased. For this reason, further research based on a large-scale survey is warranted.