Meeting of the Parliament 11 March 2026 [Draft]
Last year, this Parliament took the landmark step of reintroducing rent controls, putting them in place for the first time in almost 40 years. Without rent controls, rents were allowed to skyrocket. Here in Edinburgh, rents for a one-bedroom flat have increased by more than 100 per cent since 2010. Those unacceptable increases have worsened poverty, inequality and hardship. When the bill is commenced, local authorities will be empowered to introduce rent control areas that will hold down rents in specific locations, although they will not cut rents, as we clearly need to do in some areas and as the Greens have called for.
Rent controls will at least stop the rip-off increases that we have seen. Just as we are about to implement one of the most important ever advances for working people—one that we know will help tackle the cost of living—we are today considering pulling back by exempting build-to-rent and mid-market-rent properties from the controls that renters have called for for so long. Those changes, which would be a grave mistake, were opposed by more than 95 per cent of the consultation responses.
To work for renters and landlords, the system needs to be simple and transparent. Tenants need to understand—[Interruption.]