Hanover has been housing and supporting people in Scotland for more than forty years.
Our core purpose is to help older people feel safe and secure at home and to live fulfilling and independent lives. This sums up our commitment to housing for life.
We provide and manage a wide range of housing and services, mainly for older people. We currently manage more than 5,000 homes throughout Scotland.
We provide a range of housing and tenure types to meet the different support needs of older people, allowing them to retain their independence within a local community and enjoy as much privacy or company as they wish.
Strategy and Business Plan 2022-27
Our Strategy and Business Plan reflects Hanover’s commitment to its mission to provide excellent services to meet the housing needs of Scotland’s older people and to support them to be as independent as possible.
Our five year plan includes an emphasis on supporting our people to be the best they can be to deliver affordable, modern, high quality services. We will focus on developing innovative models of housing and care and support, while meeting the challenges of achieving sustainability and value for money.
Our Values
At Hanover Scotland, we have four key values that we aim to work by:
- show RESPECT
- be ACCOUNTABLE
- support COLLABORATION
- promote INCLUSION
Below is a short video which provides an introduction to our company values and what they mean for us in our daily roles.
We actively encourage complaints and suggestions and if you would like to notify us about something, please click the link below.
History
Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association was formed in 1979. Prior to this, we were part of Hanover Housing Association which still operates in England today as Anchor Hanover.
The original Hanover Housing Association was founded in 1963, when the National Corporation for the Care of Old People (subsequently The Centre for Policy on Ageing), concerned by the urgent need for purpose built housing for the elderly, sponsored the formation of Hanover Housing Association. It was the first national organisation of its kind.
Two of the first schemes built by the Association were in Scotland, at Drymen and New Scone. They represented the first ever sheltered accommodation provided by a housing association in Scotland.
However, the difficulties of communication led to a pause in Scottish developments until a decision was taken in the early seventies to pursue an active programme with a view to opening a Scottish Regional Office. This office was opened on Hanover Street in Edinburgh in 1976.
‘We collected around us a number of very distinguished Scots and have gradually taken over the controls from our parent at Egham.’
Rt Hon Lord Glenkinglas, 1980
In 1978, the organisation moved to larger premises on Albany Street in Edinburgh and on 1 April 1979, Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association came into being.
The aim of the original Hanover Housing Association was to;
“provide specialised housing for the elderly who wish to continue to lead an active independent life”.
From the start Hanover participated as a partner in urban renewal, helping to regenerate council housing estates around Glasgow including Castlemilk, Drumchapel and Nitshill. In the early 1990s it was the first housing association to be active in the redevelopment of Glasgow’s Gorbals.
Hanover may also have been the first housing association in Scotland to use design and build, in its Auchinairn Road development in Bishopbriggs.
Since then, the organisation has gone from strength to strength. In 2019, we merged with Arklet Housing Association and celebrated our 40th anniversary.
Governance
We are a non-profit making organisation, run by a Board of volunteers whose members receive no remuneration for their services. The daily management of the organisation is overseen by our Chief Executive, Angela Currie, a team of Chief Officers and more than 600 staff located throughout Scotland.
Hanover’s Board establishes and approves the strategic direction of the Association, including its mission and values, strategic objectives and financial business plan.
The Board and its 2 sub-committees (diagram below) also monitor performance and ensure that the business is financially sustainable.
Meet our Board
Board Papers and Minutes
The minutes can be found under the tab How we take decisions and what we have decided
We are a registered charity with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and a registered housing association with the Scottish Housing Regulator.
To find out more about these governing bodies, please visit their websites:
Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) – https://www.oscr.org.uk/
Scottish Housing Regulator – https://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk/
The Scottish Housing Regulator publishes a range of information on Hanover including our 2023-24 Engagement Plan and our Assurance Statement you can find our latest performance report in our annual report.
Membership of Hanover
Would you like to become a member of Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association?
Hanover is run by a Board which is made up of volunteers who are committed to ensuring that the organisation is run efficiently; that high quality services are provided to our customers and that the organisation is in good financial health and meets all regulatory and legal requirements. Members of Hanover elect members of the Board at the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Our people
Put simply, our people are the most valuable asset we have, because without our employees we could never reach the high levels of service that we constantly strive to achieve for our customers.
That’s why we have a network of more than 600 dedicated employees located across Scotland who work day (and often night) to ensure that every customer receives the best possible service. Our management structure is set out below.
Click on the link below to meet our Executive Leadership Team.
Feedback - Complaints, Comments and Compliments
We actively encourage feedback, suggestions and complaints to help us continually improve our services. If you would like to notify us about something, please click the link below.
Complaints
To find out more about our Complaints process, please refer to our Complaints Guide – How to Complain Leaflet 2023
Reporting a Significant Performance Failure to the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR)
If you are a tenant of a registered social landlord (RSL), such as a housing association or co-operative, or if you are a council tenant, you can report a significant performance failure (SPF) to the SHR. A group of tenants or an individual acting on behalf of tenants, such as a representative of a registered tenants’ organisation, can also report an SPF.
An SPF is where a landlord:
- consistently and repeatedly fails to achieve outcomes in the Scottish Social Housing Charter or outcomes agreed locally with tenants; or
- has not reported its performance annually to its tenants or the annual reported performance does not reflect actual performance; or
- has materially failed to meet the Standards of Governance and Financial Management; and
- has acted, or failed to take action, in a way which puts tenants’ interests at risk and this significantly affects a number of the landlord’s tenants.
To find out more, visit the Scottish Housing Regulator website or call 0141 242 5642. There is a factsheet for tenants called Complaints and serious concerns as well as a form which can be used to report these.
Innovations and partnerships
We like to think that an organisation never moves forwards by standing still and we are no exception! That’s why we are looking at the latest innovations to help our customers live more independent and active lives.
Whether that’s through new technology or ways that we can improve community engagement, we are always looking at the next opportunity to grow our organisation.
Awards
At Hanover, we have over 40 years’ experience in developing and managing housing and providing support to residents. Over the years, we have received several awards recognising our excellence in a number of areas.
Accreditations
Hanover Scotland has a proven track record of accreditations demonstrating our commitment as an organisation to our purpose and values.
Freedom of Information
Hanover Scotland is keen to make sure that information about the way we work and the services we provide is easy to find.
Guide to the information we publish
We follow the Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance and use the Model Publication Scheme to organise our information into nine classes. Click here to access the Guide to Information.
If you have any questions, queries or suggestions about how to improve our published information or this guide, please email us at hello@hanover.scot.
To find out how we handle your personal information when you request access to information, please read our Privacy and Cookies notices. Our Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Policy is here.
How to access your Personal Information
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 you are entitled to find out what personal information we hold about you and request a copy of the personal data. Hanover’s Data Protection Officer is Elaine McCaffery, Head of Governance and Transformation. You can exercise your right access information by submitting a Subject Access Request using the following contact details:
95 McDonald Road, Edinburgh EH7 4NS
Upon receipt of a Subject Access Request, we will ask you to complete a form to ensure we have all the necessary information to be able to conduct a timely and efficient search. We will respond to all requests within one calendar month. We will not charge you for a Subject Access Request, unless we find the request to be manifestly unfounded or excessive.
More information about how to submit a Subject Access Request and your data protection rights can be found in our Privacy and Cookies Notices
How to access Environmental Information
Anyone can submit a request to access any environmental information we hold under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIR). If you would like to access to any environmental information we hold, you can submit your request by using the following contact details:
95 McDonald Road, Edinburgh EH7 4NS
We will respond to all requests for environmental information within 20 working days. After which we will either provide you with the requested information or issue a refusal notice if we decide to withhold the information. If we decide to withhold information, we will explain how we have made this decision in the refusal notice.
If the information requested is particularly voluminous or complex, we may extend the response period to 40 working days and will advise you of this in writing before the end of the initial 20 day period.
Schedule of Charges
The EIR allows us to recover costs associated with photocopying, printing and postage when responding to a request for information. We will not charge for time spent by employees when evaluating EIR requests to determine whether information should or should not be provided.
Our charges will be based on the following:
- Employee time: Average hourly rate of pay for the grade of the employee responding to the request, up to a maximum of £20 per hour per employee.
- A4 or A3 copies: 10p for black & white or 45p for colour.
- Postage: Charged at current Royal Mail cost for 2nd Class postage.
We will not charge for requests for information that takes us less than 4 hours to find and most requests for information will be responded to by email which will help to reduce the costs. If it takes us more than 4 hours to retrieve, we may ask you to pay the cost up to a maximum of £500.
Notice of Fees
If we intend to apply a charge for the information request we will issue you a Fees Notice as soon as possible. The fees notice will include a description of the charges, how they have been calculated and how you can make payment. If the charges exceed £500, we will advise you in the fees notice how you can reduce the charges by narrowing down your search.
You have up to 60 working days to decide whether to pay the fees notice or take up our offer of advice on how to reduce or avoid the charges. We will not be able to issue you the requested information until the fee has been paid.
If we do not receive a reply from you within 60 working days of the fees notice, we will assume that you have withdrawn your request.
How to appeal against our decision
If you are not satisfied with our response to your EIR request, you can appeal or challenge our decision within 40 days from receiving our decision. Upon receipt of your appeal, we will conduct an internal review to make sure we have responded correctly to your original request for information. We will inform you of the outcome of the review within 40 working days of receiving the complaint.
If, after the outcome of our review, you are still dissatisfied with our decision you can appeal directly to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
The Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle,
Doubledykes Road,
St Andrews,
Fife
KY16 9DS
01334 464610
How to access information under the Freedom of Information Act
If you would like to request access to information that is not personal or environmental information, then your request is likely to fall under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).
If you would like to submit an access to information request under the Freedom of Information Act, please send your request to the email address below. We will review your request and reply to you with our decision.
freedomofinformation@hanover.scot
Freedom of Information, 95 McDonald Road, Edinburgh EH7 4NS
Customer Engagement Plan
Our Customer Engagement Plan for 2024 – 2027 can be downloaded below.
