Meeting of the Parliament 04 October 2022
I am very pleased to open the debate on the introduction of the Scottish Government’s Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill. In doing so, I express my thanks to everyone in the Government who has worked so hard, at an extraordinary pace, to make that possible.
Almost a month ago, the First Minister launched this year’s programme for government, which was published in the context of a severe cost crisis—one that poses a danger not only to livelihoods but to lives. At that time, perhaps we thought that it could not get much worse, but, thanks to the frankly astonishing actions of the United Kingdom Government in the past two weeks, it has. We should make no mistake: this has the makings of a humanitarian emergency. This Parliament does not have all the levers that we really need to fully tackle the crisis, but we are determined to do what we can with the powers that we have to protect those who need it most.
Tenants, on average, have lower household incomes and higher levels of poverty and are more vulnerable to economic shocks. Some 63 per cent of social rented households and 40 per cent of private rented households do not have enough in savings to cover even a month of income at the poverty line. That compares with 24 per cent of households that are buying with a mortgage and 9 per cent of households that own outright. Not many households will escape the cost crisis altogether, but tenants are much more exposed. That is why the bill will provide tenants in the private and social rented sectors, as well as those in college and university halls of residence and purpose-built student accommodation, with greater protection.
The UK Government’s response to the energy crisis through the energy price guarantee falls far short of what is needed to protect people from severe financial hardship. We anticipate that, as a result, many more tenants will fall into fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty this winter. Tenants do not just need help with their housing and energy costs; they need to feel secure at home over the winter.
With that context in mind, the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill has three key aims: first, to protect tenants by stabilising their housing costs by freezing rents; secondly, to reduce impacts on the health and wellbeing of tenants caused by being evicted or made homeless; and thirdly, to reduce unlawful evictions.
In addition to those important measures to protect tenants, the Government recognises that not all landlords are in the same financial position, so we have included in the bill necessary safeguards that will give them flexibility where it is genuinely needed. The intention is for the provisions to last until at least 31 March next year.