Meeting of the Parliament 03 December 2014
The private rented sector is clearly changing and growing, so we need to keep legislation up to speed with those changes. My constituency of Glasgow Shettleston used to have a huge number of council and housing association houses, a fair number of owner occupiers and a traditional private rented sector. However, that has changed hugely, especially through the right to buy, and previous council or housing association properties as well as bought houses have moved into the private rented sector.
It seems to me that people use the private rented sector for a number of reasons. One is that some people, particularly younger people, just want a property for the very short term. I have been in that situation, as I am sure have other members. The second reason is that some people cannot get affordable housing, so they are forced unwillingly into the private rented sector. Part of the answer to that is ending the right to buy, which is absolutely the correct thing to do, and the other part is to build more affordable homes over time. The third reason is that some people cannot or do not want to buy, and private renting is their preferred route for the long term. That is much more common in other countries, but it seems to be becoming more common here, too.
Quite a number of the antisocial behaviour issues that are raised with me relate to private rented flats. There can be difficult residents anywhere, but the lack of stability for private tenancies makes things worse. If a tenancy is likely to be very short term, where is the incentive to build up relationships with neighbours and the wider community or to maintain, improve or invest in the property? If improving the property means that the rent goes up—as one of my colleagues told me that they had experienced—there is a positive disincentive to do that.
In Shelter Scotland’s make renting right campaign, I am very much attracted by the words “stability” and “security”. I was less comfortable with the phrase
“to stay as long as they want”
under the heading “Flexibility”. However, I was interested to see in the briefing that we received from Shelter that it is now talking about
“Flexibility for people to stay in their home as long as they need.”
I suspect that people will be more comfortable with that. Some of Alex Johnstone’s chums were perhaps a bit frightened off by the idea of people staying as long as they want.
There is a reasonable balance in the social rented sector. On the one hand, there is security and stability but, on the other hand, people can be evicted if the worst comes to the worst. I am encouraged by the positive relationship between police and housing associations, who work together so that the neighbour from hell can ultimately be evicted. We would certainly want a similar approach in the private rented sector.
As we are debating housing, the minister and members might not be surprised that I will mention the Bellgrove hotel in my constituency. It is privately owned and the residents are renting, although I accept that it might not be typical of the properties that Mary Fee talked about. One lesson from the Bellgrove hotel, which is in effect a hostel, is about the condition of private rented accommodation, which is another factor in the debate. If I took members to a range of tenement properties in Parkhead or Shettleston, they would know within seconds of entering them which are private lets and which are run by housing associations. I hasten to add that there are some very good private rented flats, but others are pretty grim, and that can be seen immediately.
A linked issue that has been raised is that of electrical safety. I hope that the Government will be open to input from the Electrical Safety First campaign.
Clearly, there is work to be done in what is a changing landscape, but we have to be positive about the achievements that have been made so far. Ending the right to buy has been a huge improvement and investing in new affordable housing whenever there is spare money has been great. Initial steps to register landlords and letting agents are moves in the right direction.
I see that I have run out of time, Presiding Officer.