Great homes to live in

We work hard to ensure that your home is safe and maintained to a high standard. In 2020-21 we complied with the standard set in all but a handful of homes we couldn’t get access to, and the vast majority of tenants were happy with the quality.

What is your rent spent on?

Tenant rent is our main source of income and pays for the services we provide. The pie chart shows how it is spent.

Repairing your home

Despite two national lockdowns making it difficult to enter properties and complete work, we have responded rapidly to all repairs reported - performing much better than the Scottish average – as well as making upgrades to homes. We aim to continuously improve how we work, to ensure that you are satisfied with the repairs service.

Good neighbourhoods

Anti-social behaviour is taken very seriously; where we cannot resolve a case within our target times, we continue to work with all involved to reach a mutual resolution.

Helping tenants in difficulties

Most new tenancies that started last year were kept, and we continue to support people in financial difficulty to access good advice and help to maximise their incomes to pay rent. Where people’s health needs change, we have completed adaptations to enable comfortable, independently living.

Providing a home

We do our best to meet the needs of households looking for a home, and for our communities, and let our homes in almost a quarter of the Scottish average time. Over 90% of tenancies go to people already living in Lochalsh and Skye.

Paying the rent

Our rents are affordable and amongst the lowest in the Highlands and Islands, and we have one of the lowest rates of arrears in the region.

Engaging with tenants

We are keen to review how we communicate with you and find new ways for you to have a stronger voice in decision-making. Please get in touch if you’d like to share your opinion on these topics by emailing wehearyou@lsha.co.uk or text/call 07825410116.

Supporting our communities

Skye needs more affordable homes for people in need, and for our communities. We also work with NHS Highland and Highland Council to help keep people across all tenures in their own home.

Getting to know your landlord better

If you want to compare us with any other social landlord in Scotland you can use the Scottish Housing Regulator’s comparator tool, on their website:

www.housingregulator.gov.scot/comparison-tool

If you want to know more about us, there’s a lot of information on our website and that of the Housing Regulator.

Community Projects

Engagement activities and community projects

Thank you to everyone who has participated in activities this year and taken the time and energy to give your feedback. Your opinions are so valued, and we want to make sure you see positive changes as a result. We have a new Tenant Participation Strategy where you can find out all the different ways to get involved, and our commitments to you. Read it here or get in touch by emailing wehearyou@lsha.co.uk or text/call 07825410116.

Here is a summary of activities this year:

• Over 160 tenants shared their thoughts on the condition of their homes, their heating systems, preferences for future technology and functionality and energy supply. This has all helped to evaluate the impact of grant funding to help lower the cost of heating, and will be taken into account when planning the future Energy Strategy.
• All new tenants gave us valuable information on how they felt the allocations process went, what support or information could be given to new tenants, any improvements in design features and overall how satisfied they are with their new homes; we continue to feed back this valuable information twice a year to different teams to improve what we do and make good decisions about future house designs.
• A small group of tenants gave us feedback on the Tenant Portal which is being rolled out to enable self-service access to information and requesting repairs, tracking repairs, reporting issues or changes to us.
• For those who had upgrades like heating systems completed in their home this year, we collected satisfaction ratings and comments on how well this was done and suggestions for improving the process of future works.
• The rent consultation had a good response rate of 14% this year, and we followed up on lots of your feedback with one to one conversations or home visits to try and address some of the issues or concerns you raised. The Board took into account your opinions and decided not to increase rent to the maximum level we consulted on. The full results were sent to all tenants and an action plan based on your priorities is on our website and updated as we progress.
• Kilmuir and Plockton housing needs surveys completed to re-assess what type of housing is needed in these areas and the demand levels.
• Factored owner satisfaction survey completed and results shared with the Finance department for review.
• Launched a new outdoor play space in Portree after tenant feedback that there were limited facilities for children and young people/families. The Target Pitch has had great use so far, and thanks to funding from The Highland Council, The National Lottery and Highlife Highland we have been able to supply goal posts and benches for the site. The LSHA grounds maintenance team has helped to cut the grass in this space and thanks for volunteers from the Skye Rugby team, the area has been extended and ground cleared of stones to make the space even better for sports.
• Our contractors have helped to donate materials for small community projects such as: a new seated bench near Airdferry resource centre in Dornie and paving slabs for the creation of an outdoor garden space; wood cut-offs have been reused and recycled for gardening projects in Portree with Viewfield Garden Collective and other initiatives across the island with Highland Community Waste Partnership projects.
• Based on feedback from tenants and community groups to do more around supporting tenants with mental health challenges, about a third of our staff attend courses run by Samaritans and other mental health charities and working hard to build stronger partnerships with local groups delivering services in the area.