Scotland Housing Awards 2024

In a rapidly changing environment, the need to deliver excellent service is more important than ever. This award recognises housing teams who go above and beyond to deliver truly outstanding customer service. 

We are looking for organisations that have used insight and evidence and who endeavour to improve the housing services received by customers. 

The judges will be looking for evidence of:

• Identification of an issue of concern for tenants
• How the organisation engaged with residents/customers and responded to their needs, including the behaviour of staff throughout the process
• High standards achieved in service delivery, including customer feedback and lessons learnt.

Nominations for this award could be for a single project or refer to your general organisational approach to customer service.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to any team across all tenures – not just customer service teams. This award is open to all organisations working in housing. To be eligible relevant activity should have taken place within the last 12 months.

This award is aimed at programmes or projects that demonstrate an innovative approach which has made a real difference to the lives of tenants or customers. This could be any new product, service, or technology – being able to demonstrate innovation is the key.

Judges will look for evidence of:

• Using an innovative approach(es) to solve a particular housing problem
• Clear evidence of success in either improvement of customer satisfaction levels or improving the lives of people in the community where the organisation works
• Evidence of sustainability in the project.

Who is eligible?

The award is open to all housing organisations across all tenures and suppliers to the housing sector, as well as community and tenants’ organisations. To be eligible, projects or initiatives should have taken place within the last 12 months.

This award will recognise partnership and collaboration across the housing spectrum. If your organisation has developed, delivered or driven progress through working in partnership with organisations in or outside of housing, we want to hear from you.

Judges will look for:

• Evidence of new and innovative ways of working
• Improving service delivery and quality as a result of partnership working
• Demonstrating best practice and improving the well being of communities through working together.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to projects involving partnership working with other organisations. Partnerships with sectors like health, care, education or personal finance are examples, but any project that requires collaboration from partners both in and out of sector will be considered. To be eligible, projects or initiatives should have taken place within the last 12 months.

Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic, Scotland’s housing sector has continued working hard to deliver much needed affordable housing. This award is aimed at developers who have built new residential developments in any recognised affordable tenure.

Your entry should be able to demonstrate the following criteria:

• The development will have created a new community with benefits to the wider area and be able to demonstrate excellence, beyond the minimum required standard
• Community engagement and partnership working
• Design quality and location.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible developments must have been completed in the last 12 months. Developments may be multi-use, but rental property must be its primary purpose.

This award is aimed at landlords and their tenants who can show excellence in working collaboratively to scrutinise work, or to embed scrutiny within the culture of the organisation. This work should have demonstrably improved service outcomes for tenants and/or enhanced the lives of tenants and communities in some way.

Judges will be looking for evidence of the following:

• How the scrutiny process has been developed in partnership with tenants
• How tenants are involved in analysing and interpreting performance information (including performance information which is in line with reporting requirements for the Scottish Social Housing Charter)
• How scrutiny has achieved improvements in services and delivered good outcomes for tenants
• How scrutiny is embedded into performance management and organisational culture.

Who is eligible?

The award is open to all registered social landlords, local authorities and their tenants in Scotland who have developed excellence in their scrutiny activities and outcomes in the last 12 months.

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This award is open to all organisations operating in the private rented sector in Scotland. It is aimed at letting agents or landlords who strive to excel in the areas of customer service and innovation.

We are looking for organisations who can demonstrate that they excel in the following criteria:

• Evidence of a particular project or difficult task you have tackled
• Evidence of excellent customer service you have delivered, perhaps going that extra mile?
• Demonstration of innovation in the way you support your customers
• How the landlord/letting agent has improved outcomes for tenants and communities.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to any private sector letting agency or landlord, including social landlord subsidiary.

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This award acknowledges the critical importance of a range of bodies, organisations and local groups in revitalising communities and neighbourhoods. It also recognises that physical improvements go hand in hand with social and economic developments to make a real difference to people’s lives.

The judges will be looking for: evidence that lasting improvements have been made in the area, both physical and socio-economic and that there are good prospects for the long-term viability of the area.

Entrants should address one or more of the following criteria:

• Improved the quality and mix of homes
• Developed a sense of place
• Contributed to broader local regeneration
• Shows evidence of partnership working
• Shows commitment to sustainability.

Who is eligible?

The award is open to any organisation, group or partnership that can show how it has met as many as possible of the criteria listed above.

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This award recognises the social landlord or letting agency that has delivered a truly excellent service for their tenants over the past year.

Judges are looking for: an organisation that has demonstrated sector-wide leadership while continuing to deliver a great service for their tenants and communities. Part of being housing organisation of the year is building the workforce of the future and judges will be keen to see how applicants have made succession planning and professional development a core aspect of what they offer as a housing organisation.

Submissions should demonstrate:

• Evidence of leading and informing change in housing policy at a national level
• Evidence of delivering an exceptional service for tenants and communities and improving housing outcomes for their tenants
• Evidence of succession planning and professional development as a core part of the organisation
• Anything else that has put your organisation on the map.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to any landlord, letting agent or social landlord subsidiary operating in Scotland. Judges are looking for entrants that have achieved real outcomes for their tenants and the sector over the last 12 months.

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This award will recognise organisations that are leading the way in driving professionalism, learning and development while delivering a great service for tenants. We want to hear from organisations who are fantastic to work for and drive good outcomes for their staff as part of the day job.

Judges will look for:

• A commitment to embedding CIH professional standards across your organisation
• Proactively developing learning and development opportunities for staff
• Evidence of delivering great outcomes for your tenants as a consequence.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to all organisations working in housing across all tenures including councils, housing associations, private sector landlords and letting agents.

To be eligible, relevant activity should have taken place in the last 12 months.

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The right to an adequate standard of housing is inextricably linked to the right to the highest attainable standard of health. The right to health is a shared and inclusive right and good quality, sustainable housing is key to fulfilling this for individuals, families and communities.

We want to hear from organisation who have made commitments to improve the health and wellbeing of the communities they serve.

Judges will look for evidence of initiatives that improve:

• Living conditions and housing suitability
• Household costs e.g. through financial inclusion initiatives and money advice
• Housing satisfaction.

Who is eligible?

The award is open to all housing organisations in Scotland. To be eligible entrants must explain how their projects have improved outcomes for their customers.

This award recognises projects, initiatives and organisations working to prevent or relieve homelessness in their communities.

Judges will be looking for: collaboration and evidence of positive change.

Applicants should be able to demonstrate success in one of more of the following criteria:

• Summarise what homelessness looks like in the community, and what role your project, initiative or organisation has played
• Demonstrate and describe how your work has made an impact and the difference made to people’s lives in your community
• Describe what approaches you have taken and whether your work could be replicated elsewhere
• Provide evidence/measures of success, ideally with contextual data (sector averages etc).

Who is eligible?

The award is open to landlords, letting agents and their partners delivering homelessness services across Scotland.

This award recognises outstanding communication with their tenants and residents, where communication has played a core part of the service received and has demonstrably improved housing outcomes. Nominations for this award could be for a single project or refer to your general organisational approach to communication.

Entries should showcase the following:

• Effective planning, strategy and communication tactics to address a housing issue
• Evidence of impact e.g. media coverage, campaign reach, customer response
• Evidence of outcomes.

Who is eligible?

This award is for teams across all tenures (not just dedicated communications teams) who have delivered outstanding communications in the last year. To be eligible, relevant activity should have taken place within the last 12 months.

The housing sector, like many others, is faced with the challenge of cutting carbon emissions to achieve the Scottish governments’ net zero targets.

This award recognises organisations that can demonstrate they have overcome some of the significant challenges in cutting carbon emissions. Applicants may consider new developments, retrofit projects or any other initiatives that have helped reduce carbon emissions.

Judges will look for the following criteria:

• Demonstrate that your organisation is actively responding to the net zero challenge
• Examples of what steps you have taken to drive forward new developments, retrofit projects or any other initiatives that has helped reduce carbon emissions
• The impact of reducing carbon emissions on tenants/residents.

Who is eligible?

The award is open to any organisation, group or partnership that can show how it has met as many as possible of the criteria listed above.

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This award recognises projects, initiatives and organisations working to promote equality, diversity and inclusion and address housing disadvantage. This includes those supporting people with specific protected characteristics or redressing specific inequality. This initiative can be focused on changes within an organisation or on the services received by tenants.

Applicants should be able to demonstrate success in one of more of the following criteria:

• What issue of disadvantage you are looking to address and what role your project, initiative or organisation has played
• What approach you have taken to promote equality and address housing disadvantage
• What was the impact of your work and what evidence do you have for success.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to all organisations working in housing across all tenures including landlords, councils, other providers and voluntary/community groups.

This award recognises the contribution of apprentices across the length and breadth of the housing sector in different areas and specialisms. The winner of this award will have demonstrated their commitment to personal development with achievement and attainment in learning.

Through their contributions in the workplace, applicants should demonstrate that they have exceeded expectations and made a difference to the organisation they work in. They will also be able to provide evidence of approaching day to day work with a positive outlook and demonstrating a willingness to be creative and innovation.

In your entry, judges will look for:

• A summary of the individual’s role and their career history in housing
• Explain how the individual has developed as a result of their learning and as an apprentice
• How the individual has shown dedication and drive to enable them to make an impact within the organisation
• A statement of how this apprentice has demonstrated a positive and willing outlook to their role and supported by evidence of how they have been creative and innovative in their day-to-day work.

Who is eligible?

The award is open to any applicant undertaking an apprenticeship scheme or traineeship in any discipline and working in any part of the housing sector.

This award is for an individual and recognises excellent leadership in the sector. It aims to demonstrate the quality of leaders in housing and highlight how brilliant housing people are.

We’re looking for leaders who can demonstrate the characteristics below:

• Achievement in driving positive outcomes
• Innovation
• Vision
• Self-awareness
• Collaboration
• Ownership for actions and mistakes.

Who is eligible?

Leaders can be identified at all levels of organisations, and whilst we anticipate that many nominations will be for professionals at executive level, we would also welcome those who have achieved at any level. They should be able to demonstrate the criteria above.

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The title of housing team of the year will be awarded to a team who have delivered an outstanding contribution to their organisation and for the housing sector. The award is designed to recognise achievement of something special, as part of developing new services, dealing with difficult situations or delivering the best services.

You should be able to demonstrate that the team has fulfilled the following criteria:

• Evidence of a particular project or difficult task that they tackled well together
• How the team has improved the performance of their organisation or improved outcomes for tenants and communities.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to all organisations working in housing, across all tenures. This could be a management team, a front line team, or am inter-departmental team. To be eligible relevant activity should have taken place within the last 12 months.

The award recognises individuals who can demonstrate that they have shown passion, commitment and flair in delivering services for tenants and residents.

Submissions should demonstrate how the individual nominated fulfils the following criteria:

• Has shown a creative or innovative approach to finding solutions for the organisation, tenants or residents
• Shows continuous improvement of the delivery of services in the pursuit of excellence
• Shows that they are an inspiration to colleagues, tenants or residents.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to anyone under the age of 30 at the time of application, who is working or volunteering in the housing sector, irrespective of tenure. Full-time students studying for a housing qualification are also eligible to apply.

This award is for an individual who has consistently gone the extra mile during their career in housing and made a lasting impact on the sector.

• They have shown passion and commitment to driving positive change in the sector
• They have been an ambassador for housing in Scotland
• They have driven change, both in the organisation at which they have worked and in the housing sector as a whole
• We’re looking for someone who has helped in their own way to put housing on the map.

Who is eligible?

This award is open to any individual who has worked or is still working in the housing sector in Scotland. Judges are looking for entrants who can demonstrate delivering positive change for their organisation(s) and in the communities they have served over their career.

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