West Lothian Council delivers

Equality in Housing

Equality in Housing

Housing, Construction and Building Services provide a diverse range of services to people throughout West Lothian. Housing Services wants to ensure everyone has the same opportunity to access services and that the services we provide meet the needs and value the diversity of all our customers. This policy has been developed in accordance with the principles of West Lothian Council's 'Policy for Equality in Service Provision', the vision statement of which is:

"West Lothian Council is committed to working with the people and communities of West Lothian to enhance the quality of life by providing, both directly and in partnership with others, a comprehensive range of quality and valued services that meet peoples needs and aspirations, and which are delivered on a basis of fairness and equality."

 It also takes into account the legal duties and recommendations contained within the following:

• Civil Partnership Act 2004
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 
• Disability Discrimination Amendments Act 2005 
• Employments equality (Age) regulations 2006 
• Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulation 2003
• the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination )Regulation 2005
• Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation 0Regulation 2003
• Equal Pay Act 1970 (Amended)
• Equality Act 2006
• gender Recognition Act 2004
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Race Relations Amendment Act 2000
• Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment ) Regulation 2003
• Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999

As well as equality legislation to protect you from being discriminated against, the Human Rights Act 1998 gives you a number of human rights that are particularly relevant to housing and property:

• The right to own, and enjoy the ownership of, property
• The right to respect for private life
• The right to respect for family life
• The right to respect for your home

 In developing this approach, Housing, Construction and Building Services has 5 main aims:

1. To ensure all services are delivered, and facilities provided, in a positive and inclusive way
2. To eliminate discrimination in accessing or receiving services
3. To promote each individual's right to their share of our services delivered in a way appropriate to their needs
4. To ensure its employees take an active role against all forms of discrimination
5. To ensure action will be taken against anyone breaching the policy Equality Schemes

 West Lothian Council has produced equality schemes on Race, Disability and Gender and have recently combined our duties under these schemes into our integrated Equality Scheme which is our most comprehensive and relevant scheme to date, duties and actions linked to the Single Outcome Agreement, which sets out the key priorities for West Lothian from 2008 to 2011. 

For Public Consultation

You can read the latest available assessments we have within the Downloadable Documents section at the bottom of this page in full or for those that have been consulted on are available in summary form here:

You can also request a full written copy of the assessment by contacting our Customer Contact Centre.

You can also write to use at the address below, all documents are available in Braille, large print or community languages.  If you have any questions on any of the information in the assessments , please fell free to contact our Quality Development Officer via the Contact Details panel.

Interpretation and Translation

We can provide all our information in a variety of formats and languages; we have several translated forms in our offices in Polish and can arrange for the translation of any required documents within a reasonable timescale.

Performance information

You can read the latest available performance information we have within the Downloadable Documents section.