Fairer Scotland

  • Tenants and landlords benefit from new regulations

    31st January 2018 by

    A new, statutory Code of Practice for letting agents, which will improve standards and empower tenants, has come into force. 

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  • Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill

    30th January 2018 by

    Women make up 51% of our population, but they are under-represented in decision-making positions across Scotland, including in the boardroom. Women continue to be paid less than their male counterparts and reports of sexual harassment and violence in our society keep reminding us that these issues are not going away. This is not acceptable and...

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  • Registered property factors- consultation on a draft revised Code of Conduct

    21st December 2017 by

    Property factors play an important role in housing in Scotland. They help many homeowners ensure that the shared spaces connected to their property- roofs, communal stairways, shared gardens and so on are properly maintained. The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 established a framework to better protect homeowners who use factoring services. The 2011 Act created...

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  • GROWING THE SOCIAL ECONOMY

    18th December 2017 by

    Raising awareness of our European Social Fund projects and the activities they are supporting is important to us. We are making positive progress across both the Social Economy Growth Fund and Social Innovation Fund that will help the most disadvantaged areas and people in Scotland. Working Rite based in Edinburgh received a Social Economy Growth...

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  • We’re changing private renting for the better

    22nd November 2017 by

    From 1 December a new private residential tenancy will be introduced, giving greater security to tenants and safeguards for landlords. This new type of tenancy will have no end date and can only be ended either by a tenant giving written notice to their landlord or by the landlord using one of 18 grounds for...

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  • Gender recognition consultation is a vital conversation

    14th November 2017 by

    One of the benefits of devolution has been an ability to defend and promote LGBTI rights. Scotland was the first country in the UK to consult on same sex marriage, and we’ve reformed adoption law to permit same sex couples to adopt jointly. We also want to do more to ensure that we are creating...

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  • Growing the Social Economy – Update October 2017

    11th October 2017 by

    There have been many changes within Growing the Social Economy since our last update. The team managing the programme is now located within the Social Justice & Regeneration Division alongside Aspiring Communities Fund colleagues. We would like to take this opportunity to thank David Cowan and his team for making us welcome. Yvonne Strachan is...

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  • Scottish Housing Day supports housing across all tenures

    21st September 2017 by

    Home means different things to different people and that’s something that Scottish Housing Day rightly celebrates. But it should mean one thing to all of us- the security that we have somewhere we can afford to call home. Too many people, stung by the UK Government’s damaging welfare reforms, have lacked this security and over...

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  • Scottish Housing Day celebrates everything the housing sector is doing to improve people’s lives

    21st September 2017 by

    Having a place to call home is crucial to a happy and healthy life and everyone in Scotland should have a safe and warm place to call home. All of us will have a housing story, and I know some of you have shared your own. Housing also has a wider value beyond a place...

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  • Housing has the power to change lives

    21st September 2017 by

    As Housing Minister I have seen first-hand the difference the right home in the right place can make to an individual, a couple or a family. Last month I opened a new housing association development and one of the families I spoke to, whose child has autism, told me their new home and its garden...

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