Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2016
The right to buy stripped away properties, but the fact is that not enough houses were built in addition. The two things are not incompatible; people were very supportive of the right to buy, which leads to secure and stable communities. Anyway, I will not go into that.
Now that people are renting in the private rented sector for longer, I welcome the improvement in private tenants’ rights, particularly the introduction of the new, modern and simpler tenancy. Given that the vast majority of tenancies are short assured tenancies, I hope that the Government’s aim is to transfer current PRS tenants to the new tenancies in the same way that housing associations and councils transferred tenants from the previous form of tenancy to Scottish secure tenancies in the early 2000s.
The overarching aim of the bill is to improve security of tenure. It was disappointing that amendment 83, in the name of Patrick Harvie, which would have created a duty to review the operationalisation of the new tenancy and, specifically, to analyse in detail how changes to security of tenure work in practice, was not agreed to. I heard what has been said about the time period but, as Shelter Scotland states,
“to ensure that this security of tenure is genuine and effective for private tenants across Scotland”,
it needs to be reviewed.
I also note my disappointment that amendment 89, in the name of Ken Macintosh, was not agreed to. If it had been supported, it would have led to the introduction of a private residential tenancy charter.
It is quite right that houses in multiple occupation in the private rented sector have to meet a lot of regulations, because those regulations ensure that there is good-quality housing. I recognise that HMOs account for only about 5 per cent of the sector, but they are examples of good practice—well, I can only say that they are in Dundee.