Glossary of Terms

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Abandonment: Occurs when a tenant gives up their home without giving notice to the landlord.
ACAS: Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service. ACAS works with employers and employees to help prevent and resolve employment disputes before they reach employment tribunals.
Accessible Housing: Designed to be usable by everyone without any further special adaptations being required.
Accountability: An organisation's obligations towards its members, tenants, service users,local communities, local authorities, government and other partners. For RSLs, this includes the demonstration of proper use of public funds.
Adaptations: Alterations to a home for people who are diasbled or have a sensory impairment. Adaptations help people to remain in their homes should their condition deteriorate.
Added Value: A distinct or specialist contribution made by carrying out activities eg social enterprises can add value to delivering public services because of their capacity to innovate or their proximity to local communities.
Affordable Housing: Housing of a reasonable quality that people on modest incomes can afford. In some areas, the market can provide some or all of the affordable housing that is needed but, in other places, housing needs to be provided at a cost below market value to meet an identified need. An 'affordable rent' is one which is within the means of households in low paid employment and which they can pay without needing to receive housing benefit.
Agency Agreement: An arrangement where one organisation carries out services on behalf of another, usually for a fee eg development, factoring, housing support, care, etc.
Allocations Policy: The set of published rules which a housing association/RSL uses to let its houses.
Allpay: A rent payment system using a swipecard to pay on-line via the Link website, at Post Offices, Paypoint or Payzone terminals, in shops or at Link offices.
Amenity Housing: Flats or houses with special modifications for people with particular needs, but not supported by a warden or sheltered housing officer. For example, amenity housing for older people could include bathroom handrails, non-slip flooring and repositioned electrical sockets.
Annual Accounts: Registered Social Landlords which are registered as Industrial & Provident Societies are required to approve an audited set of Accounts within six months of their year end and submit them to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and to Communities Scotland. The Accounts will include details of income and expenditure, a balance sheet and an external auditor's opinion. Companies (including Companies Limited by Guarantee) are also required to lodge audited accounts with Companies House within ten months of their year end. Many RSLs (including Link) complement their Accounts by publishing an Annual Review which features key results and achievements during the previous year.
Annual General Meeting (AGM): Each association is required to hold an AGM once a year. The general requirement is that this should occur within 3 months of the end of the financial year, which for most organisations is 31st March. Apart from approving the accounts and annual report, the AGM is the occasion when elections to the management committee take place. A similar requirement exists for Companies Limited by Guarantee or by Shares.
Annual Performance and Statistical Return (APSR): Sent to Communities Scotland, the APSR gives details of an RSL's performance each year in terms of its development and growth, housing service delivery, financial situation, staffing levels, etc.
Anti Social Behaviour Order(ASBO): A court order to protect the public from behaviour causing alarm or distress. Councils and RSLs - in consultation with the police - can apply to the courts for an ASBO. It contains conditions prohibiting the person named in it from doing anything specified in the order.This can include verbal abuse or entering certain locations.The minimum age at which a person may be subject to an ASBO is 12.
Assign: To make over or transfer
Assignee: The person something is transferred to.
Balanced Communities: Trying t o make a disadvantaged community more like the wider population - attracting more peple who are in work, who are in different age or ethnic groups, who are home owners, etc.
Barrier Free Housing: Houses designed to be able to be used by people with a range of needs.
Benchmarking: Comparing performance with other organisations and used to identify scope for service improvement by highlighting areas of difference. Benchmarks (measurement data that act as a baseline/starting point) may also be used to assess an indidual organisation's performance over a period of time.
Below the Tolerable Standard (BTS): A legal term describing a building which does not have standard amenities and/or is not structurally sound eg.BTS houses may lack thermal insulation, safe electrical systems, adequate hot and cold water supplies,etc.
Best Value: Achieving continuous improvement in performance, based on the cost and quality of services and the views and expectations of customers. Local authorities have a legal duty to achieve 'best value' and Communities Scotland/SFHA's 'Performance Standards' place a similar obligation on RSLs.
Block Insurance Policy: An arrangement whereby a number of houses, usually a landlord's entire stock, is covered by one insurance policy. Easier to administer than individual insurance for each house.
BME: A term for people from Black and Minority Ethnic groups.

Board/Management Committee: Elected at the Annual General Meeting. Usually comprises between 7 and 15 voluntary members if an Industrial & Provident Society or less if a guarantee or share company.
Brownfield Site: A planning term to describe a piece of land which has been developed before. (Compare with Greenfield Site).
BS EN ISO 9001:2000: A quality standard that meets UK, European and International agreed criteria.
Building a Better Deal: Building a Better Deal is an initiative developed by Communities Scotland to encourage greater efficiency in the construction and maintenance of social housing. The aim is to improve the standard of social housing and achieve better value for money. Known in England as "Modern Methods of Construction" (MMC).
Building Standards Regulations: Regulations made by the Scottish Execurtive to ensure that construction, alteration, extension or demolition of buildings complies with certain minimum standards.
Burden: An obligation which runs with the ownership of the property, the details of which are found in the Title Deed.

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Page last updated on Friday, 13 October 2006