Meeting of the Parliament 23 September 2025 [Draft]
Amendments 1, 2 and 22 seek to introduce special rent control areas, which would work in much the same way as rent control areas but would allow rents to increase by a lower amount than specified in the central formula, to be frozen or to be cut. That is absolutely crucial. Rents have increased by grotesque amounts in some areas of Scotland—in some cases, by more than 100 per cent since 2010—and the central formula would do nothing to address that. In Glasgow, Lothian and some other areas with recent large rent increases, there is a very strong case for applying short-term controls that would allow much tighter limits on rent increases than the current proposed limit of retail prices index plus 1 percentage point, up to 6 per cent.
If we do not introduce such controls, we will essentially be endorsing the unacceptable increases that we have seen in recent years. Tighter controls require stronger safeguards, so I have already limited the lifetime of special rent control areas to one year. I hope that we can agree on the principle that tighter controls will be needed temporarily in some areas.
Amendments 24 and 120 seek to reinstate the transitional provisions that offered some protection to tenants ahead of rent control areas coming into force. Those were meant to act as a bridge to the bill’s controls, and it makes no sense for them to have lapsed.
The Scottish Government, which supports rent controls, is allowing rents to soar in the two years before the bill comes into force. In the time since the controls expired—which was only in March this year—Living Rent has documented cases of renters facing huge rent hikes far beyond market rate, with some landlords proposing rent increases of more than 30 per cent, and some proposing hikes of up to 88 per cent. A Living Rent member in Lanarkshire faced a 55 per cent rent increase this summer, and one member in Glasgow was hit by a £200 increase—that is an increase of £2,400 over a year. How is an average renter expected to be able to cope with such ludicrous rent hikes?
Allowing those controls to lapse does not make sense for a Government the official position of which is that it supports rent controls. It does not make sense for a Government that is seeking to reduce child poverty, when housing costs are one of the biggest contributors to that. It does not make sense for a Government that is committed to eradicating homelessness to allow years of a near free-for-all for landlords to hike rents beyond what some people will be able to afford.
My understanding is that the Scottish Government has been advised that it would likely lose a legal challenge on the issue. Before now, the Scottish Government has not been backward about coming forward when it comes to going to court to defend policies. The Government stood up for the rights of our trans siblings to be known by their preferred gender, and it stood up for Scotland’s right to vote on its future as an independent country. I am asking the Government to do the same now: to stand up for renters and be prepared to defend their rights not to have exorbitant rent hikes before rent control areas come into force.
I move amendment 1.