Temporary accommodation standards framework - legal enforcement: consultation

Introduction

Scotland has some of the strongest homelessness rights in the world. Having somewhere to call home is a basic human right and housing is one of the most important factors in a person’s quality of life. Anyone experiencing or at risk of homelessness is entitled to help from their local authority, including access to temporary accommodation if it is needed.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that temporary accommodation is of good quality and meets all the needs of the household experiencing homelessness. While temporary accommodation provides an important safety net in emergency situations, we want the time anyone spends there to be as short as possible.

The Scottish Government ran a consultation on improving temporary accommodation standards in 2019. The consultation proposed changes to three main areas:

• The Unsuitable Accommodation Order
• Advisory standards for temporary accommodation
• The development of a temporary accommodation standards framework

In May 2020, the Unsuitable Accommodation Order was extended to all homeless households. New advisory standards for temporary accommodation were created and published in November 2019 in the interim Code of Guidance on Homelessness.

A new temporary accommodation standards framework (TASF), which built on the 2019 advisory standards, was published by the Scottish Government in April 2023. Formal consultation on the standards needs to be undertaken before these can be legally enforced. Local authorities and social landlords are expected to work towards meeting the standards in the framework in the meantime. This offers social housing providers the opportunity to make improvements to their temporary accommodation supply, provide the necessary training for staff and ensure new procedures are in place to meet the framework.

This Scottish Government consultation paper invites your views on taking forward the commitment to introduce a legally enforceable temporary accommodation standards framework.

Section 1 of the consultation paper provides background and context for the proposed changes and sets out the current position around standards in temporary accommodation.

Section 2 details what is contained within the TASF and includes our consultation questions on the contents of the framework.

Section 3 relates to the proposed enforcement of the TASF, its potential inclusion within the Scottish Social Housing Charter (the Charter) and the role of the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) in monitoring, assessing, and reporting on how well social landlords – individually and collectively – achieve the Charter's outcomes.

Details of how to respond to this consultation can be found on page 18 at the end of this document.

We would encourage you to respond to any or all of the questions in sections 2 and 3 where you have a contribution to make. However, in responding to this consultation, please do not feel constrained by the questions set.