Meeting of the Parliament 25 January 2023
This is not a new emergency. Yet again, we have heard the cabinet secretary blaming everybody but herself and her Government. The writing has been on the wall for a number of years. The Government has consistently missed its house building targets and allowed the supply of quality affordable housing to plummet during its time in power.
I am afraid that the outlook for the near future is not much better. With the introduction—and now the extension—of rent control measures, we are already seeing the knock-on effects of policies that prevent landlords from renting out their properties. I am already hearing from a number of stakeholders in my Lothian region—particularly in Edinburgh—that they can no longer rent out their properties as a viable option and that they will sell. That will further reduce the number of homes available for those who need them.
Let us be clear: those who are bearing the cost of those policies are not wealthy companies that could potentially afford a price freeze; those who are bearing the cost are the smaller-scale landlords, who simply cannot afford to continue renting out their properties while losing money, and the most vulnerable in our society, who cannot find a stable place to live due to a shrinking market.
I hope that the Scottish Government will wake up and take a long, hard look at itself, because the responsibility for the emergency lies squarely at its feet only, and not those of anyone else.
15:32