Hansard

It was a privilege to be a member of the committee that examined the bill. It was clear that not all local authorities have taken a vigorous approach to landlord registration. I know that discussions have taken place with legal authorities about prioritising prosecutions in relation to registration, where the law has been flouted.

Members are only too aware of their own experiences of private rented housing and of their constituents’ experiences. The Local Government and Communities Committee generally agreed on the principles in the bill, but that was not achieved without clarification of the proposals as outlined.

The bill’s fundamental aim is to provide detailed regulation of the private rented housing sector, which will secure tenants’ rights in that increasingly important sector of the housing market. As I said in the stage 1 debate, the committee recognised that

“overcrowding is a significant and serious issue”.

In practical terms, concerns have been raised about the implications of how the bill tackles overcrowding and about the obligations on local authorities. In its stage 1 report, the committee detailed the concern about whether local authorities will have the financial resources to make the bill work in practice.

At stage 2, the bulk of the examination of the bill related to overcrowding statutory notices. The Government allayed the concerns that were noted at stage 1, and two non-Government amendments were agreed to.

In considering the mechanics of a bill’s progress, it is always necessary to remember the hard-fought campaigns that people and organisations have undertaken to shine a light on the problems that they deal with daily. As part of the Public Petitions Committee’s work, I—along with Frank McAveety and Anne McLaughlin—made a visit to Govanhill that showed us that people and communities still face landlord blight and that communities are prepared to call time on shameful and, to be frank, unpleasant landlord practices.

The Local Government and Communities Committee was presented with clear evidence of the scale of disputes between landlords and tenants in the private sector. Illegal evictions and repairs that had not been undertaken were only a few of the problems that were highlighted in evidence sessions.

Part 4 of the bill enables a private landlord to apply to the private rented housing panel for assistance in accessing property to comply with the repairing standard. That is welcome. Part 4 also requires private landlords to provide tenants with a tenant information pack, which is a welcome measure and will help tenants to understand their rights and landlords’ obligations under tenancies.

Mary Mulligan referred to private landlords and obligations in relation to carbon monoxide testers, as well as monitors for gas and electrical equipment. I, too, make a plea for any future Government that comes in to look at the installation of hard-wired fire alarms. A Strathclyde Fire and Rescue report states that the majority of fatal fires in 2009-10 occurred in flats and that there were a total of 23 preventable deaths in house fires in the local authority areas that constitute the Strathclyde area. That is an obligation that should be put on private landlords and other landlords.

In terms of making communities safer, I hope that the bill will make landlords aware of their responsibilities.

Although the bill will address some of the concerns that have been identified about what can be described, at best, as a level of consumer dissatisfaction with private sector landlords, extra diligence by local authorities is required.

I welcome the stage 3 debate and the bill’s key principles. I look forward to the bill coming into force, as I believe that it will have a positive effect in reducing the number of rogue landlords. It is important to understand that the bill is aimed at rogue landlords; it is not aimed at the vast majority of landlords who carry out their duties, work with tenants in a meaningful way and provide a useful service to Scotland.

I thank all those who provided both written and oral evidence during the various stages of the bill. I also thank the committee clerks, the Scottish Parliament information centre, the minister and his civil servants, and my colleagues on the Local Government and Communities Committee, who have made this a worthwhile bill. I hope that it will be passed at decision time.

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