Reassurance for registered social landlords

Legislation which will help support the delivery of 50,000 new affordable homes is to be introduced by the Scottish Government. By ensuring Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) can be classified as private bodies, the bill will ensure that RSLs can borrow money privately in addition to the Scottish Government’s committed investment of £3 billion in affordable housing. The announcement follows today’s decision by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to classify RSLs as public bodies in the national accounts. The ONS came to this decision in light of a number of powers that the Scottish Housing Regulator can exercise over RSLs. The ONS came to the same decision in regard to England’s RSLs last year and similar legislation was introduced at Westminster. Commenting on this decision, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: