Meeting of the Parliament 30 September 2025
This has been a real marathon; however, it has felt as though we have run this course before—as we have. Many of the stage 3 amendments, which have been debated over three long nights, were also debated at stage 2, when they were mostly not moved following promises of talks with the Government. Some of those talks took place, but some did not. We have ended up with a bill from which good ideas have been jettisoned, and the Government has got its own way on everything.
The bill is well intentioned but fundamentally flawed. It risks undermining the very goals that it claims to pursue—affordable, quality housing and a thriving rental sector. Instead, it introduces sweeping rent controls that will deter investment, reduce housing supply and, ultimately, hurt the very people it aims to protect.
I lodged amendments to help students, but none of those made it—not even the one that said that councils should include student housing in their local housing strategies. I proposed exempting build-to-rent and mid-market rent properties from ruinous rent controls. Even though the cabinet secretary agreed with that, those amendments did not make it either. We have ended up with a system in which those sectors will be exempted through regulations so as not to stifle investment, but the private rented sector will not be exempt. Quite why that will not stifle investment is beyond me—because it will.
Rent controls are a blunt instrument. They do not address the root causes of housing unaffordability, which are a chronic lack of supply and planning bottlenecks. The bill centralises too much power in ministers’ hands by leaving key decisions to secondary legislation with limited scrutiny.
There are some good measures on homelessness; I want Awaab’s law; and the measures on domestic abuse are good. However, I cannot vote for the bill because of the rent control measures, which will be extremely damaging.