Meeting of the Parliament 21 January 2016
I am pleased to hear that Mr Eadie has been enjoying himself since 1988. I have been enjoying myself for much longer than that.
Before I go on, I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which notes that my wife owns two houses that she rents to tenants. They have lived there for many years and we think of them not as tenants but as neighbours and friends. I am sure that the feeling is reciprocated.
As I am a tenant myself, in my Edinburgh flat, and as I have managed and maintained property in my previous business life, I have experience on all sides of the sector. I do not believe that we can consider the bill properly without first understanding the context. The private rented sector has more than doubled in the past decade and banks are still not lending to many of those who aspire to home ownership, although they have lent profusely to this profitable and therefore fast-growing sector. We must also remember that we are dealing not with private rented property but with people’s homes, that a decent home is a fundamental necessity and that peaceful enjoyment of a decent home should be a fundamental right in any civilised society.
Unfortunately, the data tells us that that is not always the case—otherwise, why would more than 70 per cent of tenants stay in their private rented homes for less than two years, why would over 18 per cent of homeless applications come from the sector and why would rents in some areas have increased so significantly when interest rates have never been lower?
There cannot be a member of this Parliament whose casework does not include many instances of landlords failing to maintain their properties to tolerable standards while ignoring the requests of tenants to carry out vital repairs, leaving tenants without heating over long periods in the winter, for example, and punishing those tenants who complain with eviction or threats of eviction. That situation cannot be allowed to continue. Equally, though, we must be mindful that it would not be helpful to disregard the needs of landlords, because, as we have heard, that would run the risk of deterring necessary investment in the provision of much-needed housing.
There is an overall and significant shortage of housing, which is why the Scottish Government has met its manifesto pledge to deliver 30,000 affordable homes in the current session of Parliament and why it has already given a pledge to deliver 50,000 affordable homes in the next session.