SCOTLAND’S housing associations will be forced to answer freedom of information requests from November onwards.
In a victory for housing campaigners, Parliament is all but certain to back a change to the law, which would bring registered social landlords (RSL) under the same data rules as public bodies.
Housing associations have long resisted the change, fearing that it will cause them time-consuming bureaucratic headaches. But campaigners have pointed out that tenants would have had access to this information before their homes were moved from local authority to a RSL.
If the proposed change is passed, it will come into force on November 11 and be subject to a review after 12 months.
It will cover any information related to any housing association functions, including repairs services, even if they carried out by a subsidiary.
However, it will not apply to factoring services, where RSLs provide a service to private tenants.
Tenant campaigner Sean Clerkin has been pushing for the change for years. He told The National: “This is a victory for those of us who have campaigned for this for the last five-and-a-half years.
“This has been a long and hard campaign but it’s clear that the Government has listened to what we had to say.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are committed to extending coverage of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
“Following extensive consultation and discussion with key stakeholders, a draft order has been laid in Parliament that will extend the coverage of the act to registered social landlords and their subsidiaries.”
Last week, the UK Information Commissioner said that housing associations south of the border should be made subject to FoI.
Elizabeth Denham said the transparency gap is “emphatic and clear”.
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