Meeting of the Parliament 30 September 2025
New year’s day 1989 was a day of celebration for some—but, for many, it was the first of almost 40 years of runaway rip-off rents. Margaret Thatcher’s Housing Act 1988 swept away rent controls, and working people have paid the price ever since.
Since 2010, rents for a two-bedroom flat have increased by 104 per cent in Lothian and by 82 per cent in Glasgow, but renters’ wages have not gone up by anything like those amounts. So, what has happened? Exactly what that Maggie intended: a massive transfer of wealth from the poorest to those lucky enough to own property.
However, owning an asset is not an occupation. A basic human right to live in a warm, safe home has become a platform for profiteering. Today, Scotland rejoins the ranks of the many countries around the world that use rent controls to support affordable living. I am so proud that it was the Greens who introduced this bill and that I am another Maggie in the team, making it stronger and bringing back rent controls.
This bill, along with the rent controls that it will introduce, is the first stage of the new deal for tenants that the Scottish Greens promised. Renters will know that their rents should never increase by more than 6 per cent. The bill will give them certainty and will help them to better plan their finances and lives. When rent notices are higher than they should be, renters can challenge them, and they will have more time to do so thanks to the Greens.
However, the system will not be as strong as it might have been. The bill will lock in above-inflation rent increases without considering the ability of renters to pay. The Parliament rejected my proposals for rent freezes and rent cuts, and it has opened the door to a range of exemptions. We should not build a two-tier system of protections in which some tenants are shielded and others are left to the mercy of the market. All renters deserve the same stability, no matter what roof they live under.
I am pleased that we are improving the evictions process by including more scope for delays during the winter months, although the outright winter ban that the Greens proposed would have been better. No one should live with the threat of eviction at a moment’s notice, and I remain disappointed that Scottish renters will not have the same protections as English renters for the first 12 months of a tenancy.
If properly funded and implemented, the duty for public bodies to prevent homelessness—to step in when risk is first identified rather than when it is too late—will be a potential game changer. Housing first is another game changer. Giving homeless people with complex needs a long-term stable home and offering—but not forcing—health and other support services is tried and tested.
It will benefit so many people if the bill takes us closer to removing the cruel concept of intentional homelessness. Allowing someone to be assessed as intentionally homeless is a moral disgrace. Actions that might seem intentional often stem from trauma, violence and disadvantage.
It is right that we have made it easier for animal lovers who rent to keep pets and for people to make appropriate adjustments so that they can really feel at home. Although the introduction of Awaab’s law is significant, there is still much more to do to drive up the quality of rented homes.
We are in the grip of a housing emergency not because we lack resources or capacity, but because, for four decades, our policies have prioritised profit over people—those who are homeless because of exploding rents and who are fighting for dignity in a system that is stacked against them. Housing instability crushes a person’s spirit—it steals hope, erodes dignity and worsens inequality. We must not create another generation that is resigned to paying too much for too little. Instead, we must create a future in which everyone can say, “I have a home, I am safe and I am respected.”
20:42