Percentage of Perth and Kinross Council housing meeting national standards falls from 97 to 47 per cent

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An Audit Scotland report has revealed more than half of all Perth and Kinross Council's (PKC) housing failed to meet Scottish Housing Quality Standards in 2021/22.The amount of council homes in Perth and Kinross meeting national standards plummeted from 97 per cent in 2018/19 to 47 per cent just three years later.PKC has said the introduction of new requirements affected its performance and it is working hard to make all its properties compliant early next year but faces delays and challenges with getting materials, labour and utility providers.Audit Scotland's Best Value Thematic Review 2022/23 outlined the dramatic deterioration in PKC's housing standards from 2018/19 to 2021/22.The report stated: "The percentage of council dwellings meeting Scottish Housing Standards reduced by 52 percent from 97 to 47 percent.

The national average is 69 percent."PKC's Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee convener Tom McEwan claimed PKC was not the only council to have seen a drop following the introduction of new regulations.The SNP councillor said: "In 2021/22 the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) introduced new indicators to the Scottish Housing Quality Standard (SHQS) that all social landlords had to meet.

Due to the inclusion of these new standards our compliance figures automatically dropped. This was not a situation that was unique to Perth and Kinross."The Blairgowrie and Glens councillor said PKC was working hard to meet the new standards.

The council's latest compliance rate - published in September 2023 - was 77 per cent and Cllr McEwan said the rate was improving each week.Cllr McEwan said: "In our 2022/23 SHR Annual Return on the Charter our SHQS pass rate increased to 69.03 per cent .