Hansard

I offer my best wishes to Ted Brocklebank for all that he has done, particularly today. He said that his closing speech will probably be his last contribution; we should all remember that this could be our last contribution. I am glad to hear that he is a registered landlord.

The debate has been very consensual—or at least that is what I was going to say until I heard Bob Doris. His speech was probably fairly light for him, but I realised when he got to his final sentence that he was not serious after all, so I will not comment further.

I must say how grateful I am to fellow committee members for the way in which we have been able to progress not only this piece of legislation but others that have gone before. I thank the committee clerks, who have been ever helpful, and the minister and his officials for the way in which they have supported us through the bill process. We have had two gos at getting to this stage, as other members have mentioned, but I hope that what we have finally arrived at will deliver on our intentions. Finally, I thank those who provided oral and written evidence to the committee, as it was thorough and clearly guided us as to how we should act.

The minister and others, such as Anne McLaughlin and Patricia Ferguson, referred to the very many good landlords who operate throughout Scotland, and I associate myself with those remarks. It is true that the majority of landlords act responsibly but, unfortunately, as we know from our casework and from the examples that we heard about in evidence, there are others who do not. That is why the bill was necessary.

The minister’s establishment of the private rented sector strategy group was welcome, and I think that it was the right thing to do to ensure that we got a broad range of opinions on how we could further improve the private rented sector. I notice that he said that he intended to continue with the group, and I approve of that, but I wonder whether he might also want to support some of the suggestions that Shelter made in its briefing. It suggested that there should be a review of the short assured tenancy regime, and I have some sympathy with that; I wonder whether the minister and others do, too. It is important that we have a scheme that delivers for tenants and for landlords, and it may be that there is a need for an assessment of short assured tenancies.

I support Shelter’s proposal for the development of a new approach to providing tenants with information and advice. Earlier, I mentioned the information pack that will be available. It is important that tenants and landlords are fully informed of their roles, and the rights and responsibilities that they have in playing those roles. More work could be done on that.

Alex Johnstone was in repentant mood. He willingly confessed that the Conservatives had opposed landlord registration in the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Bill, but he can rest assured that there is much rejoicing in heaven for every repentant sinner who sees the error of their ways. I am pleased that he thinks that the bill before us provides a better way of ensuring that registration for landlords is enacted appropriately.

Alex Johnstone also confessed that he thought that he might have scared us with his amendments at stage 2, but it takes much more than that to scare Labour members. I think that those amendments led to today’s amendment 15, in the name of Mr Brocklebank, which the Parliament agreed to unanimously, so Mr Johnstone was headed in the right direction.

Patricia Ferguson reminded us that it has taken us a while to get here. The Housing (Scotland) Bill originally contained an attempt to tackle the private rented sector. At the time, I was quite critical of the minister for withdrawing the relevant provisions from that bill, because I was concerned that we would not get to the stage that we have reached today. I shared Charlie Gordon’s concerns, so I am pleased that we have got to this stage.

John Wilson mentioned the campaigns that led to the Parliament considering some of the difficulties that people have to live with. We should all recognise the benefits of the Public Petitions Committee, which introduced us to issues such as overcrowding, in particular, and I hope that the measures that will be agreed to at decision time will make a difference. It is to the Parliament’s credit that we have responded to the petition on that. John Wilson suggested that there needs to be guidance on hard-wired fire alarms, and I support that suggestion.

Charlie Gordon mentioned the issue of letting agents, which we may need to come back to in the future. I hope that the minister agrees that further work needs to be done on that. I heard recently about work that is being done on letting agents south of the border and, as someone who is always willing to learn a lesson, wherever it comes from, I think that we should consider the measures that are proposed there.

I believe that the bill will move us on and that the measures that it proposes are good. I suspect that further measures may still need to be taken, but I am sure that the Parliament will return to those in good time. My final request to the minister is to ensure that the measures that the bill contains are implemented quickly. We referred today to measures from the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, which are not due to come into effect until August of this year—five years later, which is an awfully long time. People within the private rented sector deserve to have the bits of legislation that we are agreeing to today enacted more quickly.

I am pleased that we accepted all today’s amendments, particularly those in the name of Pauline McNeill. I was accused yesterday of doing U-turns. I say to the minister that his was the fastest U-turn that I have seen in a long time, but it is much appreciated. On that consensual note, I welcome the bill.