News
The Scottish Housing Regulator has published "How We Regulate: A Guide for Tenants and Service Users". The new, short guide has been written to help tenants, homeless people and other service users find out more about the work of the Regulator. The guide also explains what tenants can do if they want to find out more about their landlord, what they can expect from their landlord and how to raise concerns.
Iain Muirhead, Director of Strategy and Communications at the Scottish Housing Regulator said: "The new guide is a summarised version of our Regulatory Framework. We've written it to help tenants and other service users find out more about who we are and what we do to protect their interests. We hope that people will find it informative. We've sent the guide to 700 registered tenants organisations, regional networks and other organisations. I would encourage landlords to promote the guide to people who use their services.
How We Regulate: A Guide for Tenants and Service Users is available to download from the Regulators website.
STOP LOAN SHARKS
We’re all feeling the pinch at the moment, with our money not spreading as far as it used to – the rising cost of living, soaring energy bills and higher food and petrol prices are all taking a toll. When we need extra cash, it is tempting to borrow from someone you’ve been told can help tide you over till more money comes in/pay day. These people are illegal money lenders or loan sharks and they lend money to people without holding a credit licence (issued by the Office of Fair Trading).
Loan sharks prey on vulnerable people and cause immense misery, harassing and bullying people when they have trouble paying back what they have borrowed and fall behind with repayments. They don’t always give receipts for payments made and often threaten violence and resort to blackmail if repayments are missed. They sometimes take benefit payment card,savings books, cash cards and valuables as security, which could ultimately leave their victims destitute as they have such limited access to funds to pay for every day necessities.
Illegal money lenders are called loan sharks for a reason and if you are aware of them operating where you live there is an easy way to report them in confidence to avoid people you know being trapped in their jaws. COSLA has launched an advertising campaign highlighting the phone and text numbers, as well as the website where people can contact the Scottish Illegal Money Lending Unit.The campaign will be played out on radio stations across Scotland and is reinforced by panels inside buses and posters in pubs and bus shelters.
If you have any information, no matter how small, on loan shark activities the Unit can use it to help investigate offenders with a view to seeing them prosecuted and, more importantly, stop them operating in your community.If you or someone you care about can answer yes to any of the below then you may have been bitten by a loan shark:
- Have you been offered a cash loan through a ‘friend’ or acquaintance?
- Have you been threatened for not being able to pay the loan back?
- Has your bank card been taken from you as a security on a loan
- Does the amount you owe keep growing regardless of how many payments you make?
Anyone who is a victim of a loan shark, or knows a friend or family member who is affected by their activities can call the Unit to pass on any information, however small or insignificant it may seem on 0800 074 0878 or text: 60003 or visit www.stoploansharks.org.uk. All information provided will be kept completely confidential.Impartial advice for anyone worried about debt or their finances in general is available from Citizens Advice Scotland on 0808 800 9060 / www.cas.org.uk
Remember, if you have borrowed from an illegal money lender, you haven’t done anything wrong. Whilst you may feel apprehensive about reporting a loan shark, the Unit are there to help you and will support you through the reporting process.Loan sharks can ruin lives and with your help, we can work together to protect communities from falling victim to the devastation they can often leave behind them.
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Help us to improve social landlords' services ...
The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) regulates all social landlords in Scotland, and is setting up a new National Panel for users of social landlord services. All people who use social landlord services are invited to join the Panel – including tenants, homeless households, home owners who receive factoring or common repairs services, and Gypsies/Travellers using Council or housing association sites. Every new Panel member will be entered into a prize draw to win one of 6 x £50 prizes.
To join or find out more…
Sign up online at bit.ly/nat-panel
OR call Craigforth (who manage the Panel) on 0800 027 2245
OR email Craigforth on shr@craigforth.co.uk
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Scottish Hydro Economy 10 - One Easy Way to Save Money
How to make the most of your electricity tariff
Please click here for a leaflet on the above tariff from Scottish Hydro Electric
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Scottish Social Housing Charter
New Housing Charter for Scotland
Housing binds our communities, contributes to our wellbeing and affects our jobs and health opportunities. The Scottish Government have published their strategy and action plan for housing in the next decade. As part of this, they have put in place a Housing Charter that is the starting point for assessing a landlord's performance. The new Scottish Social Housing Charter was approved by the Scottish Government in March 2012 and from 1st April 2013 all Scottish Social landlords will need to report on the performance measures contained within the Charter. Central to these measures is the level of satisfaction that tenants have for the services that are provided. Its therefore important that social landlords are able to quantify tenants satisfaction and they can only do that by asking tenants their views on the services that are provided. In this way the Regulator, that is appointed by the Scottish Government, can then assess how successfully a social landlord is delivering its services.
The Charter will help to improve the quality and value of the services that social landlords deliver for their tenants and other customers and supports the Scottish Government’s strategic objective of a safer and stronger Scotland. It will do so in the following ways:
- By providing tenants and other customers with a clear statement of what they can expect from social landlords, and helping them to hold landlords to account.
- It will focus the efforts of social landlords on achieving outcomes that matter to their tenants and other customers.
- It will provide the basis for the Scottish Housing Regulator to assess and report on how well landlords are performing. This will enable the Regulator, tenants and other customers, and social landlords to identify areas of strong performance and areas where improvement is needed.
The Association is currently assessing the information that it collects to ensure that it is appropriate for the purposes of reporting on the Charter. We will also be carrying out a Tenant Satisfaction Survey of all our tenants during 2013.
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Caithness Sports Facilities Ltd
The Association has welcomed a new subsidiary to its group of companies. Caithness Sports Facilities Ltd (CSF) was acquired from the Thurso Harbour Trust who set up the company to develop a watersports centre in Thurso. Click here for more information.
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What You Need To Know About Changes To Housing Benefit
The Government is reducing the amount of housing benefit some people can claim. The information will help you find out who will be affected and where you can go to get help and advice. Click here for more details.
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Pentland Energy Advice
PEA are pleased to announce a new service for its customers...
Click here for more information.
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Newsletters
We are currently looking for tenants to join our newsletter group. Please contact Caroline Paul if you would like more details. Click here to view our newsletters.
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House Swaps
We operate a Mutual Exchange Board, please click here for more details.
If you have any news items you would like seen on this page, please contact Caroline Paul and she will be able to help you. Thank you.
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