Scotland Housing Awards winner 2023

Excellence in the private rented sector

Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) is a local authority with a housing stock of around 8,000 properties.  We have a strong track record in responding to homelessness through our innovative 'Home First' approach launched in April 2018.  We’ve had a dedicated private sector team since 2009 and our PKC 'Lets Social' letting agency was launched in 2010 and currently provides chargeable management services for more than 200 properties.

All local authorities in Scotland are supporting Ukrainian displaced people. What makes this project innovative is that we took the initiative and developed an offer for private landlords, using the funding available, that delivered instant results.

Engaging with the private rented sector can be challenging for local authorities who are also responsible for the regulation and registration of private landlords. The current legislative landscape also makes engagement at the current time difficult, with various restrictions having been placed on landlords through recent cost of living legislation. Landlords have also experienced increases in regulation in recent years. Whilst this has created challenges, PKC also recognised opportunities that have been created and actively sought to support landlords to manage and understand these changes.

Through its PKC Lets initiative, we were the first local authority to register as a letting agent and introduced chargeable management services for private landlords in 2010.

This project built on established relationships but is unique in the level of incentive offered, and the scale on which it is being delivered. The landlord offer is based on a combination of financial incentives, rent guarantees and free support with property and tenancy set-up. The financial aspects are funded using the Ukraine funding streams from the UK and Scottish governments and the service elements are already provided on a routine basis by the private sector team.

The project delivers a unique level of engagement with private landlords and adds a new level of collaborative working with local letting agents in order to secure the widest range of suitable housing. This has required officers involved to actively engage with letting agents, to explain the background to the project, the range of supports available, how this can interact with their own business needs and encourage letting agents that engagement with the local authority will have positive benefits to them. Many are suspicious of the local authority’s motivation, especially when we also offer chargeable services for landlords, but creating honest and open relationships with the staff has allowed us to overcome most barriers.

Many of the incentives can be provided through guarantees rather than any direct cost, reducing the cost of delivery and allowing an increased number of households to be supported through the schemes. The intention will be to expand the vulnerable groups that the initiative can support to remove barrier to private rentals and increase the housing options available to vulnerable households whilst mitigating potential risks to landlords.

The multi-agency nature of the team, all co-located and with shared responsibility and understanding is another example of how valuable partnership working is. Traditionally social workers would work in partnership with housing teams, however in order to deliver this project social workers are based and integrated with the housing team in order to work pro-actively to support families before they reach crisis point. The social workers have reported that this allows for a greater level of early intervention, reduction in cases escalating and better understanding across colleagues. This shared responsibility also promotes positive working relationships and shared learning.

The project delivers on the council’s wider objectives of providing more affordable homes, providing a range of housing options, delivering more homes for people with varying needs, and providing quality homes with affordable warmth.

Between September 2022 and March 2023, 55 private sector properties were acquired for Ukrainian displaced people. Tenancy sustainment levels are around 95 per cent with only three of the tenancies having ended when the Ukrainian families relocated to other areas to be reunited with extended family members. The landlord offer, along with enhanced financial and other support for hosts, has minimised the impact of Ukrainian resettlement on local homelessness services. We have only received three homelessness presentation from a Ukrainian displaced person and have not needed to use any of our standard temporary accommodation properties.

PKC has provided services to private landlords since 2010. Despite our longstanding engagement with the sector, the Ukraine landlord offer has generated relationships with new landlords we hadn’t previously engaged with. The incentives available have also resulted in long-term empty properties being brought back into use.

In order to balance the impact of the Ukrainian Landlord offer with the needs of other customers it has been agreed that no more than 60 per cent of available private rented sector properties will be made available to the scheme, with the remainder being available to other clients including local homeless people.  

Future plans for the project include expansion to meet the needs of other vulnerable groups to open up the private rented sector as a realistic, long term, affordable housing option. The current project has created an opportunity to explore the level of incentive required to engage with private rented sector.