Hygiene - our letter to Kevin Stewart
Our open letter to Kevin Stewart regarding Covid-19 hygeine measures and our report on the lack of compliance among social landlords in Scotland.
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Tenants left without basic Cleaning Services by leading Housing Associations across Scotland
Since Scotland began lockdown on 23 March we have been repeatedly told we must do everything we can to ‘stop the spread’, so why have leading housing associations left our most vulnerable tenants without basic cleaning services and where does the buck stop?
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Hygiene - our letter to Kevin Stewart
Dear Kevin Stewart,
Please find attached an open letter to you as Housing Minister, and a dossier of evidence in support of what we are asking. The effects of the absence of regulation to ensure Covid-19 hygiene measures and information to secure physical distancing are mandated are illustrated in our report from tenants in RSLs across the country.
As we are all acutely aware surfaces, particularly hard metal surfaces such as those seen in lifts in multistorey blocks, and buzzer/intercomm systems, handrails and bin chutes are a vector for the transmission of the virus. Equally there is no more dangerous a space than an enclosed space with lots of people densely packed together, such as a lift. Without information campaigns many tenants will not intuit the need for physical distancing measures. RSLs have a duty of care to their tenants and our evidence has shown a very mixed response with some landlords behaving dangerously negligently, while others have stepped up to the challenge to a degree, and we draw on their leadership as our suggestions for a common regulatory standard. I'm sure like us you would agree with the need to maintain appropriate levels of communal hygiene across schemes and blocks and physical distancing is important and urgent.
Our open letter to you was written in light of our findings and our dossier of evidence demonstrates the unsafe conditions in which many tenants are currently forced to live in.
This is an urgent matter and I hope to hear back from you very soon. A common regulatory standard for hygiene in RSL housing blocs which protects staff, is fair to tenants and provides information to tenants on how to physically distance cannot wait, and we look forward to a constructive dialogue.
Yours Sincerely,Sonja Coquelin, Chair of Living Rent, Scotland's Tenants' Unionhttps://www.livingrent.org/hygiene_letter
^Link to Dossier.
Housing Action Day 2020
On March 28th, 2020, tenants across Scotland came together, showing the government and landlords that during a global pandemic, they won't be silenced.
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Together we stand, together we win
These are uncertain times: we do not know how long the lockdown will last, we fear for our loved ones, and we are being left in the dark regarding our incomes, rents and future. In these moments, seeing people across Scotland stand up for each other and organise for this crisis not to hurt us more has been incredible. You demonstrate every day that in union, there is strength. Shout-out to all of yous who have contacted your MSP to ask for a ban on evictions as well as those of you who have joined local neighbourhood Living Rent groups to organise a response to the pandemic. Every day, we are building power through this crisis and holding our government and our landlords to account, ensuring that our rights and our safety are protected.
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Protecting tenants during the pandemic
In March 2020, like so many people across the world, our lives were up-ended by the Covid-19 pandemic.As Scotland and the rest of the UK prepared for lockdown, we knew that tenants across Scotland would be the worst hit and that protection against evictions were direly needed. When staying at home was the best way to stop the spread of the virus, it was essential for homes to be secured.
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The Scottish Government have NOT banned evictions.
The coronavirus pandemic has placed the spotlight firmly on Scotland’s housing crisis. Hundreds of thousands of tenants across the country have been confronted not just with a health crisis, but a financial one too: as people’s workplaces close their doors, rent becomes unaffordable. That is why Living Rent is calling for an urgent ban on evictions and non-repayable ‘rent holidays’ for all tenants affected by the pandemic.
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