Housing to 2040 Strategic Board: terms of reference

Purpose

Housing to 2040 (H2040) is Scotland’s first long-term housing strategy. It sets out a vision for what housing in Scotland will look like in 2040 and includes a set of principles to guide policy-making. It is supported by a route map which shows how we will achieve the vision.

H2040 was produced following extensive consultation and engagement with the housing sector, wider stakeholders and the public and resulted in a cross-government strategy with hundreds of policies, actions and commitments. These span the work of the Scottish Government, well beyond the housing portfolio.

H2040 commits to setting up a governance process and a monitoring framework so that the Scottish Government and others can assess progress towards the vision and be held accountable

The Scottish Government is establishing a two tier governance process. The Strategic Board with ministerial and stakeholder membership will provide:

• strategic oversight
• accountability on progress to the H2040 vision
• ownership of H2040 beyond government
• a long-term view beyond parliamentary cycles
• the ability to involve 'end users'

The strategic board will be co-chaired by the Minister for Housing and the COSLA Community Wellbeing spokesperson.

To support the strategic board, a Scottish Government official-level steering group will provide operational-level assurance of progress and escalate any issues to ministers or the strategic board for resolution.

Remit

The remit of the strategic board is to provide:

• strategic oversight of policy development and delivery by identifying interconnections and helping to resolve tensions
• accountability on progress to the H2040 vision by providing advice on the development of an appropriate measurement framework and tracking progress
• ownership of H2040 beyond government by supporting and driving a partnership approach to policy development and delivery
• a long-term view beyond parliamentary cycles by championing a focus on outcomes
• the ability to involve 'end users' by bringing a range of views into consideration

The Scottish Government will provide secretariat for the strategic board, which will ensure that: 

• the board's work plan and meeting schedule is in place
• adequate information is provided to the board via the supporting steering group
• required intelligence from elsewhere is provided
• actions from the board are fed back to relevant leads, including those in other organisations
• secretariat support is provided, including meeting logistics, provision of papers and minute taking

Meetings

The Co-Chairs or, in their absence, a nominated board member, will preside at meetings of the board.

A minimum of five board members must be present for the meeting to be deemed quorate.

Meetings will take place three times per year, with the schedule to be adapted as required. 

The Co-Chairs, supported by the Secretariat, will be responsible for determining the agenda in advance of each meeting.