Posted 09.05.14
CIH Scotland has said it is extremely disappointed by the Housing Minister's decision to drop Section 5 of the Housing Bill, which would have lifted the prohibition on taking age into account in allocations.
The Minister's decision was revealed in the Scottish Government's formal response to the Stage One Report from Holyrood's Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee, recently published.
An alliance of organisations - ALACHO, CIH Scotland, COSLA, GWSF and SFHA - had argued that the measure would provide important flexibility in helping landlords deal with very specific allocations situations. They rejected suggestions that the measure would lead to discrimination against younger people, arguing that landlords had no wish to unfairly discriminate against any group.
David Bookbinder, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at CIH Scotland, said:
"We're very disappointed by the Minister's decision. The Scottish Government put this measure into the Bill and now the Scottish Government has removed it.
"Councils and housing associations provided many specific examples of how this measure would help them make sensible, sustainable allocations, but instead the Minister has sided with a campaign which provided no evidence - only conjecture - that the measure would lead to unfair discrimination.
"There isn't much left of what could have been a helpful set of measures to genuinely enhance flexibility in allocations. Good intentions have eventually produced little or nothing to support social landlords in the difficult job they have with making allocations.
"We hope that the Bill's modest flexibilities around the tenancy regime will not now be eroded at Stage Two".
