Committee
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 21 March 2023
21 Mar 2023 · S6 · Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Item of business
Subordinate Legislation
Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Incidental Provision) Regulations 2023 [Draft]
The Scottish Government has a responsibility to ensure that temporary emergency measures are necessary and proportionate and that they are appropriate and fit with our housing objectives, and we have a responsibility to take that approach to our new housing bill so that it is consistent with what we seek to achieve in housing. As a starting point, we recognise that the right to adequate housing is a human right. That has not been delivered by everyone, and we have a situation in which the level of regulation on a number of standards is significantly different between the private and social rented sectors. We are seeking to reduce the gap in outcomes between those types of tenures. Our experience is that, in the long term, increasing the quality of the regulation of the private rented sector is compatible with growth and viability in that sector. Although I have noticed that some people have sought to blame the emergency measures for decisions that have been made on the new supply of rented accommodation, the measures have no impact on initial rent setting; they impact only in-tenancy annual rent increases. I recognise that some people will argue against any form of protection for tenants or regulation in the market. I do not think that that extreme position would be appropriate, but we will seek to continue to ensure that the measures that we take strike the appropriate balance between providing safeguards for landlords, which are included in the emergency 2022 act, and continuing to expand protection for tenants.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Green
Item 2 is evidence on draft regulations. I welcome Patrick Harvie, Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights. Mr Harvie is joined...
The Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights (Patrick Harvie)
Green
Good morning, convener, and thank you. I am happy to be here today to present the draft Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Incidental Pr...
The Convener
Green
Thank you for explaining the clarification in the draft regulations. Do members have questions?
Miles Briggs (Lothian) (Con)
Con
I will return to the questions that I raised in the committee’s evidence session on 28 February, which were about the use of data—specifically, private landl...
Patrick Harvie
Green
Although it is not technically relevant to the instrument that we are discussing—which is a clarification of the drafting of the legislation on the introduct...
Miles Briggs
Con
Is the Scottish Government looking at information to assess what impact the emergency legislation has had and at what rate people could potentially leave the...
Patrick Harvie
Green
The Scottish Government has a responsibility to ensure that temporary emergency measures are necessary and proportionate and that they are appropriate and fi...
Miles Briggs
Con
Maybe I will ask the question in a more straightforward way. Are your officials looking at that data, in order to publish it, so that we are acutely aware of...
Patrick Harvie
Green
As I said in response to your first question, everybody—landlord organisations, tenant organisations, housing academics and the Government—recognises that th...
Miles Briggs
Con
Thanks for that.
The Convener
Green
I thank the minister for the evidence today and for going into a bit of detail that was beyond the scope of what the committee is looking at. We turn to age...
The Convener
Green
The committee will publish a report setting out its recommendation on the instrument in the coming days. I now suspend the meeting to allow us to set up for...