Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 21 December 2021
I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am the owner of a rented property in North Lanarkshire.
Scottish Labour welcomes the publication of the draft rented sector strategy consultation—which has arrived, finally, at the end of the year—because we have long called for more meaningful Government intervention in the private rented sector, in improving tenants’ rights and in protecting people from rising rents, as my colleague Pauline McNeill’s Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill and her general work in campaigning last session would have done.
Once again, with more restrictions expected soon, on top of the reinstatement of widespread self-isolation rules, the pandemic forces us to acknowledge that our homes have never meant so much to us. Once again, if we have somewhere that we can call home and that is warm and safe, that is the first line of defence against Covid.
We will support the motion, and we agree with the aims of the strategy. Tenants must have secure and stable tenancies, rights that allow them to truly live in them, a pause clause, a chance to decorate, continued safeguards against eviction and private sector rent controls. However, we also want to use the debate to ask the Government to take immediate action, because Covid continues to exacerbate the housing crisis. How quickly we move will be key.
Last month, the First Minister told me that the Government is
“happy to engage about the timing of legislation on rent controls.”—[Official Report, 18 November 2021; c 28.]
Our amendment therefore singularly seeks to hold the Government to that and to secure agreement that the framework for rent controls will be put in legislation sooner rather than later, via the forthcoming housing bill.