Committee
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 28 February 2023
28 Feb 2023 · S6 · Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Item of business
Subordinate Legislation
Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Early Expiry and Suspension of Provisions) Regulations 2023 (SSI 2023/8)
The impact has been a subject of concern from the social rented sector, but we have been pleased with our ability to reach agreement with the sector. The average approach—the approach of not setting a cap and not even seeking a voluntary, uniform cap for the social rented sector, but of offering an average instead—allows for some flexibility. Some social landlords will have an urgent need to invest in quality and maintenance as well as other aspects of their investment programme. Some will have managed more successfully than others to keep rents low and under control during the pandemic. They will not all have followed exactly the same path, because they are independent bodies. Given the different circumstances that different social landlords are in, it was appropriate that we allow some degree of flexibility. Social landlords exist for a social purpose and they are not there to extract the maximum rent that they can extract from the properties that they have on offer; they take that social purpose very seriously. None of them would seek to impose unaffordable rent increases or ones that could reasonably be avoided. In fact, we are seeing early indications that the rents that are being set are significantly below average. I have seen figures from some local authorities that have set their rent increases for the coming year at 2, 3 or 4 per cent—significantly below the average that we have been seeking. We anticipate that that will continue to be the case, and the Scottish Housing Regulator will continue to give us information on that.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Green
Our second item is evidence on the draft Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Amendment of Expiry Dates and Rent Cap Modification) Regulat...
The Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights (Patrick Harvie)
Green
I appreciate that the full titles of the instruments are a bit of a mouthful. I am pleased to be at the committee to present on the Cost of Living (Tenant Pr...
The Convener
Green
Thank you very much for your detailed opening statement. We have a number of questions; you might well have touched on some of the issues already, but we wil...
Patrick Harvie
Green
As I think that we discussed with a number of members in the debates in the Parliament during the bill’s passage, there are connections between the emergency...
The Convener
Green
Thank you for highlighting the fact that rent adjudication will create a bridge between the current position and your proposals. You touched on the rent cap...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Again, as we debated during the passage of the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Bill, we recognise that the two dominant parts of the rented sec...
The Convener
Green
Thank you very much for that response.
Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP)
SNP
Good morning to you and your team, minister. We heard in committee last week about the below-inflation rent rises that you mentioned, which will provide chal...
Patrick Harvie
Green
The impact has been a subject of concern from the social rented sector, but we have been pleased with our ability to reach agreement with the sector. The ave...
Willie Coffey
SNP
I presume that there has been knocking on your door with requests for consideration of additional resource. Will we keep an eye on the matter and invite some...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Absolutely. The commitment to social housing from the Scottish Government remains very strong. There has always been an understanding that the targets for ne...
Willie Coffey
SNP
Last week, we heard from the North of Scotland Regional Network of Tenants and Residents, which reminded us that the issues are not just about rent but are a...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Yes. I reinforce the point that we have never suggested that the emergency legislation is a solution to every aspect of affordability in the rental market. W...
Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con)
Con
Good morning to the minister and the officials. The committee has heard from a number of private landlords with regard to investor confidence in the sector b...
Patrick Harvie
Green
A longer-term argument can obviously be had—it has played out in the chamber on a couple of occasions—about whether a regulated approach to private renting i...
Miles Briggs
Con
I do not know whether the Scottish Government has live data on this that the minister could share with the committee. Especially as we approach the September...
Patrick Harvie
Green
As I said in my opening remarks and reinforced to the convener, we believe that we have struck a balance that achieves a degree of parity. Private rented sec...
Miles Briggs
Con
You touched on students, and I want to ask specifically about Edinburgh. As an Edinburgh MSP, I have never known it so bad with regard to the numbers of peop...
Patrick Harvie
Green
We have to continue to engage with the universities around the obligations that they have to look after the students that they choose to attract, whether tho...
Miles Briggs
Con
Have universities contacted the Scottish Government to express their concerns on that issue?
Patrick Harvie
Green
I am not aware of recent contact from the universities on that issue.
Yvonne Gavan (Scottish Government)
Education colleagues are in on-going dialogue with the universities and colleges, but nothing specific has come to us.
Patrick Harvie
Green
Miles Briggs also mentioned homelessness. If we look at the tenures from which homelessness referrals come, there has been an extended period of a number of ...
The Convener
Green
We move on to questions from Mark Griffin, who is online.
Mark Griffin (Central Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I declare an interest as the owner of a private rented property in the North Lanarkshire Council area. Good morning, minister. You touched on some of my are...
Patrick Harvie
Green
We confirmed fairly recently that we intend to introduce that legislation as soon as we can after the summer recess this year. There are a number of areas w...
Mark Griffin
Lab
Thank you for that answer. The other issue that I want to cover is one that the SFHA raised last week. What is the Government’s view of mid-market rent being...
Patrick Harvie
Green
That is a very good question. We acknowledge that, given the nature of mid-market rent, there are differences not only in rent levels, but in what is include...
The Convener
Green
Annie Wells also joins us online.
Annie Wells (Glasgow) (Con)
Con
Minister, why do you think that extending the evictions pause is necessary and proportionate, given that landlords generally pursue eviction as a last resort...