Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2016
I will keep this short and simple. I explained in my opening remarks that I feel that we could have done better and that the bill at stage 1 was better than the bill that we have at stage 3. When decisions are taken tonight, the Conservative Party will stand with the private rented sector and will vote against the bill. That does not mean that we do not wish the circumstances of those who rent in the private rented sector to be improved, but we feel that an opportunity has been missed to encourage investment in the sector simply because the Government is pursuing the requirements of tenants and ignoring the requirements of landlords.
Landlords in the private rented sector are quite often reluctant landlords and small investors. Often, they are individuals with a single property. If they are encouraged to do the right thing, they will do it, but they do not necessarily have the money to do it right now or when we wish them to. We need to encourage confidence among landlords, large and small, and encourage people to invest in the sector. We need to encourage people to take the industry forward as an industry—I use that word advisedly. It is an opportunity for many to invest in serving the needs and requirements of others. We should encourage and support people to do so.
If the effect of the bill is to take confidence away from those who currently invest in the sector, as I worry will be the case, a sector that we have relied on at a time when Government has not been investing in housing as it perhaps should have been will lack the confidence to expand further. The reason why we have high rents in some areas is not that there are too many private rented homes; it is that there are too few. If we can encourage growth in the sector, that can be a significant part of dealing with Scotland’s many housing problems.
The Conservatives will continue to participate in the process of legislating in the area. Maybe some day, there will be enough of us to actually influence things for the positive—who knows? With an election on the horizon, we can be optimists. You never know.