Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 21 December 2021
I believe that the Scottish Government missed the opportunity to get private sector rents under control in the previous session of Parliament. I say that because I felt a sense of frustration that my Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill was not supported by the governing party. I believe that we lost critical time in tackling poverty and inequality.
However, I make it clear that I plan to work with the Scottish Government and Patrick Harvie, who I know is committed to this set of reforms. I hope that the minister will consider incorporating some of the ideas from my bill in the forthcoming legislation. Tenants cannot wait until 2025 to see at least some change. In the private rented sector, there is a need for parity with the public sector. That is long overdue.
This has been an extremely tough year, with tens of thousands of people losing their jobs and incomes. Many people in the private rented sector have also had to contend with rents rising above the rate of inflation, yet again. It will be worse for some, as the Scottish Government figures on private rents up to the end of September 2021 show that average rents in Lothian and greater Glasgow increased at above the rate of inflation again. Between 2010 and 2021, we have seen rent rises at well above the rate of inflation on all property sizes.
However, rising rents are not just a problem in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The statistics show staggering increases in rents of 7.1 per cent in West Dunbartonshire and 6.8 per cent in Ayrshire. Therefore, I am pleased that the temporary legislation that Parliament passed during Covid clearly succeeded in preventing mass evictions during the worst of the pandemic. It also sheltered public services from the additional pressures of responding to, and ensured a reduction in, homelessness.
A report by Andrew Watson at the University of Glasgow that was published last month found that around one in five landlords had current tenancies in arrears at July 2021. That scales up to around 45,000 landlords across Scotland, with arrears totalling around £126 million, as Mark Griffin mentioned. It is a real crisis and we need to get our heads round it.
However, the state of private rented sector housing leaves much to be desired. Many tenants routinely suffer from water penetration, damp and condensation, and the associated mould growth. Those problems are frequently made worse by repairs that are slow, with issues often going unrepaired and unresolved. Therefore, I believe that rent controls must be linked to the quality of the accommodation that people rent. My Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill would have done that.
There is a clear link between poverty and high housing costs, which should be at the centre of the legislation. We cannot continue to accept the number of people who are living in poverty in the private rented sector, many of whom have no alternative available to them. That is the key point. Evidence shows that around half of tenants spend 30 per cent of their income, and some spend 40 to 50 per cent of their income, on rent. A mortgage is cheaper for most of those people, but because of the problem that they face, they will not get alternative options for housing.
Young people are at the centre of the housing issue—they need a fair deal. We need a fair deal for families and we must recognise that single parents are very likely to be struggling to pay their rent in the private rented sector. The number of children in the sector who live in severe poverty has more than doubled.
We need a fair deal for students, too. In my bill, there is a way to address Willie Rennie’s point, which I am happy to talk about another time. We can overcome the problems. Students in the private rented sector saw their rents rise by 34 per cent in the past three years, and many of them who live in private accommodation have no rights. I ask the minister to consider whether students will be at the centre of housing reform.
We must make the reforms in this parliamentary session and ensure that we make a difference by tackling poverty and giving people options for good, affordable, warm homes.
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