Meeting of the Parliament 03 December 2014
In opening for Scottish Labour, I put on record our party’s support for Shelter Scotland’s make renting right campaign. As always, Shelter Scotland is at the heart of putting forward proposals on what is best for Scotland’s residents.
The campaign, among others, best exemplifies why Shelter is important to our housing sector: its proposals come from its users’ experiences. Much of what Shelter requests was proposed by Labour during consideration of the recent Housing (Scotland) Bill, but the Scottish Government blocked our amendments.
A consultation asking for views on a new tenancy for the private rented sector has been launched; yesterday, we submitted our response. Will a bill follow the consultation? Will the minister tell the chamber the bill’s timetable?
We support many of the Government’s proposals, but others could go further. For example, the minimum duration of a new tenancy should be three years, unless the tenant specifically requests that it be shorter. The 28-day period for repossession might also be too short in some circumstances.
It is important to consider why Scottish Labour has brought the debate to the chamber. The private rented sector is broken and in need of reform. The number of tenants in the sector has doubled in the past 10 years, the gap between private and social rents in Scotland is the second highest in the United Kingdom, and private tenants are spending more of their income on housing in comparison with a decade ago.
With that in mind, let us assess what the Government has achieved: housing bills that failed to address new and existing pressures in the private rented sector; fewer houses built than at any point since 1947; and an expert working group that reported on what could happen with a yes vote but set no ambition for Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom. That said, we hope for a consensual debate, given that many Government back benchers have signed up to support the Shelter campaign.
As I have repeated many times and will continue to repeat, the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 was a missed opportunity. Although Labour agreed with the Scottish National Party Government on aspects of it, we remain disappointed that the Government and its back benchers voted against our amendments, which would have made a difference to tenants in the private rented sector.
The make renting right campaign calls on the private rented sector to offer stability, flexibility and fairness to its tenants by modernising tenancies. That can be achieved only with the full support of the Parliament and the political will of the Government. A modern tenancy must strike the right balance between tenants’ rights and landlords’ rights. In our response to the private rented sector consultation, we stressed that the tenant must have the utmost protection from unnecessary evictions, poor security and unfair rent rises, while the landlord has a right to make returns on their investment in their property.
I recognise that there are many exemplary landlords. We do not seek to punish landlords, as many of our proposals would not apply to them. That is why we in Scottish Labour believe that the proposals that we put forward for inclusion in the Housing (Scotland) Bill and as part of our response to the private rented sector consultation could standardise the protection for all tenants and their families.
We know that a quarter of the Scots who live in poverty do so as private renters and that almost half of private rented sector households are families with children. The sensible and practical option for the minister and her Government would have been to support a cap on rent rises earlier this year. Given that new figures show that there has been an average rent rise of 2.7 per cent across Scotland and that there have been higher increases in different regions, I hope that she will see her error of judgment and act sooner rather than later.
This is not just an English or, more specifically, a London problem as the Scottish Government would like us to believe. For example, in the Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire areas, average monthly rents have increased by almost two fifths since 2010 and, in the Lothians, private rents have increased by 17 per cent over the past four years. The cost of such increases pushes more families and tenants into poverty, yet the SNP refuses to take action. The average monthly cost of a two-bedroom property in Aberdeen is £898, while the Scottish average is £537. It is clear that there is a postcode lottery.
In June, an Ipsos MORI poll on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Housing showed that four in 10 private renters worry about meeting rent payments, and 43 per cent of respondents expressed concerns about not being able to afford their rent in 12 months’ time. A cap on the number of rent rises to one per year would allow tenants to manage their finances much better and would allow landlords to plan for investment while maintaining the tenancy. Let me be clear: Scottish Labour does not back rent control and we are not advocating rent control.
Living with a disability can present many challenges. One challenge that often goes unmentioned is access to suitable housing, especially in the private rented sector. As more people turn to private rented housing as a result of growing waiting lists for social housing, people with disabilities also find themselves looking to private lets.
Recent statistics from the Scottish Housing Regulator show that, on average, it takes social landlords 66 days to complete adaptations for medical reasons, and in some cases social tenants wait almost a year for such adaptations to be completed. That is shameful, and it backs up what Leonard Cheshire Disability warns us about in its briefing for today’s debate.
It is often expected that private landlords cannot compete with the resources that social landlords have to meet demands for repairs and adaptations. As no statistics are available for comparison, I share my support for the changes that Leonard Cheshire would like to be made, as I worry that the needs of many disabled people in private housing are not being met. When grants can be applied for, there are means of financial support. However, pressures on local government mean that demand is not being matched by supply.
Leonard Cheshire shows in its briefing why disabled-friendly homes are more cost effective in the long term. For example, installing a stairlift in a lifetime home can cost around £2,500. However, if a property’s wall is not suitable for a stairlift, the cost of adapting it could exceed five or 10 times the lift’s original cost.
Building homes that meet the needs of the elderly and the disabled requires commitment from the Government and developers. Without that, the necessary standards cannot be met.
I talked a few minutes ago about worries about meeting rent payments. The stress on finances, health and mental wellbeing caused through the lack of security cannot be overemphasised. Children’s education can suffer if they have to relocate every year or two. Research suggests that they can develop anxiety and stress because of the stress of moving. The average time that a family spend at the same address in the private rented sector is two to three years, in comparison with 10 years in the social rented sector.
Modernising the tenancy by scrapping the short Scottish secure tenancy, creating greater security of tenure and introducing an annual cap on rent increases would help to mitigate and tackle many of the direct and indirect problems that result from a lack of security.
Our motion does not seek to create division between members. It highlights the need for change in how the private rented sector works. The number of private tenants has doubled in a decade, as has the number of households living in poverty in the private rented sector. I hope that we can all agree that we want a well-regulated and stable private rented sector.
I move,
That the Parliament notes that, over the last 10 years, the number of households in the private rented sector has doubled to 368,000; notes with concern that the number of households in poverty in the private rented sector has doubled in the last decade to 120,000; further acknowledges that, in parts of Scotland, rents have risen by nearly 40% in four years and that the average Scottish rent now stands at £537 a month; welcomes Shelter Scotland’s Make Renting Right campaign; supports its calls for reform of the private rented sector, and, in particular, believes that private rented sector tenancies should be reformed to provide tenants with greater security of tenure, including longer standard tenancies and predictable rents for tenants and landlords, including supporting in principle the introduction of a cap on rent rises and the limitation of rent reviews to one per annum.