56 - Housing Bill part 3: Domestic abuse with Michelle Meldrum, Eileen McMullan and Sophie Berry

The Scottish Housing News Podcast

Kieran Findlay and Jimmy Black continue their look into the new Housing Bill with a look at the duties expected of social landlords regarding domestic abuse.

Under the proposed legislation, social landlords will have to provide support to tenants experiencing rent arrears or risk of homelessness due to domestic abuse, and to publish a policy on how it will exercise these functions.

To help explore what a domestic abuse policy could entail, and the key role that social landlords could have in tackling the issue, the panel included Michelle Meldrum, the chief executive at Berwickshire Housing Association, Eileen McMullan, policy lead at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, and returning to the podcast was Sophie Berry, a solicitor at Govan Law Centre.

A transcript of this episode is available here: https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/the-housing-bill-part-3-domestic-abuse-podcast-transcript

Jimmy Black has written a blog to accompany the episode here: https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/articles/blacks-blog-violence-in-the-home

Further reading:

• CIH Scotland and Scottish Women’s Aid ‘Policies Not Promises’ report: https://www.cih.org/media/znmnr0u2/policies-not-promises.pdf
• CIH Scotland domestic abuse knowledge hub: https://www.cih.org/knowledge-hub/tenancy-and-support/domestic-abuse
• Social landlords good practice guide: https://www.cih.org/media/krhfduto/guidance-for-social-landlords-domestic-abuse-cv19.pdf
• SafeLives knowledge hub: https://safelives.org.uk/knowledge-hub

Kieran Findlay is the editor of Scottish Housing News. Jimmy Black is a former Dundee housing convener and housing justice campaigner.

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