Committee
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 5 March 2024
05 Mar 2024 · S6 · Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Item of business
Subordinate Legislation
Rent Adjudication (Temporary Modifications) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 [Draft]
Under agenda item 2, we will take evidence on three sets of regulations. I welcome Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights, and his Scottish Government officials. Yvonne Gavan is a team leader in the housing services and rented sector reform unit; Adam Krawczyk is head of housing, homelessness and regeneration analysis; Poppy Prior is a solicitor; and Yvette Sheppard is head of the housing services and rented sector reform unit. I invite the minister to make an opening statement.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Green
Under agenda item 2, we will take evidence on three sets of regulations. I welcome Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and ...
The Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights (Patrick Harvie)
Green
Thank you, convener, and good morning to committee colleagues. I am pleased to be at the meeting to present three sets of regulations that will support the e...
The Convener
Green
Thank you for your opening statement. It was helpful that you went into some of the detail and acknowledged the very helpful Scottish Parliament information ...
Patrick Harvie
Green
We have had to strike that balance throughout the process, from our framing the emergency legislation in the first place to considering its operation and, no...
The Convener
Green
It is good to hear that, having started with 10 per cent and 15 per cent, there was engagement and listening and you settled on those other figures.
Stephanie Callaghan (Uddingston and Bellshill) (SNP)
SNP
We have heard that, as you mentioned, there are concerns that the proposals could be quite confusing. You mentioned the online rent calculator that has been ...
Patrick Harvie
Green
We will keep under surveillance the engagement that people have with the awareness-raising campaign—a great deal of it is online, so we can monitor the level...
Stephanie Callaghan
SNP
Can third sector organisations such as Citizens Advice Scotland, if they come up against issues, expect to influence what will happen from this point on?
Patrick Harvie
Green
We will certainly welcome feedback from a range of voices, not only on the awareness-raising work that we are doing in the immediate term but on the operatio...
Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of interests as the owner of a private rented property up to July last year. Good morning, minister. T...
Patrick Harvie
Green
This is a hugely important question that we have been conscious of all through the process. It was very clear that the rent cap had to be temporary; that is ...
Mark Griffin
Lab
My second question is whether the Government has considered changing a particular element of the existing procedure. When a landlord gives notice of a rent i...
Patrick Harvie
Green
A landlord has to give a full three months’ notice of a rent increase, and the rent must not have changed when that notice is issued. Tenants who wish to mak...
Marie McNair (Clydebank and Milngavie) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning. Do you think that rent service Scotland and the tribunal will have the capacity to deal with the potential number of challenges to rent increas...
Patrick Harvie
Green
We have worked with colleagues to understand what they expect in terms of the burdens on them of processing rent adjudication requests. The process has not b...
Pam Gosal (West Scotland) (Con)
Con
Good morning. Callum Chomczuk, from the Chartered Institute of Housing said: “if we have a system that comes into place in Scotland, we need to have at its ...
Patrick Harvie
Green
As we go through this year and the committee engages with the proposed housing bill, we will want to explore the issues around data collection in that contex...
Pam Gosal
Con
Thank you, minister. The absence of data was brought up last week in our evidence sessions on the housing bill. Data is key when decisions such as this are b...
Patrick Harvie
Green
The evidence that the rent adjudication process can operate effectively with the current data is that it operated effectively before the emergency legislatio...
The Convener
Green
Thank you for that clarification.
Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning, minister and colleagues. The committee heard last week that homelessness has gone up in Scotland but, interestingly, that the numbers of peop...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Absolutely—we will. The point that Mr Coffey raises is relevant to the operation of the emergency protections, but actually goes back a bit before that. If w...
Willie Coffey
SNP
Did you say that the measures that we are discussing today will also expire on 31 March 2025 but that they could be extended beyond then, if appropriate? I t...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Yes. The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 gave us the power to introduce such changes. It specified that changes could be introduced fo...
Willie Coffey
SNP
Thank you.
Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con)
Con
Good morning, minister and officials. In your opening statement, minister, you said that renters and landlords do not need to know the detail behind this. Wh...
Patrick Harvie
Green
The circumstances will be different between not only parts of the country geographically, but individual tenancies. For example, we can think about a ten...
Miles Briggs
Con
I understand. You mentioned the geographical element; in Edinburgh, new properties are coming on to the market with rents that are 25 to 30 per cent higher t...
Patrick Harvie
Green
A range of views are expressed on the potential impact of the temporary legislation on the wider PRS market. It is very clear that new rent increases, as adv...
Miles Briggs
Con
Finally, the Scottish Association of Landlords has accused the Scottish Government of “anti-landlord rhetoric” and of “harming investment in private rented ...