Hansard

I will take the amendments in the order in which they were spoken to.On amendment 31, I thank Jim Eadie for raising the issue of carbon monoxide poisoning in private rented homes. The installation of carbon monoxide detectors provides additional protection to tenants in the private rented sector; indeed, Mr Eadie has already indicated how many deaths occur in the UK as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. His amendment seeks to add the requirement for the installation of carbon monoxide detectors to the repairing standard for private rented homes. As such a proposal would strengthen housing standards and improve the safety of tenants in the private rented sector, I welcome it and urge the committee to support amendment 31.Amendment 53 in the name of Mark Griffin seeks to require the installation of hard-wired smoke alarms in properties in the private rented sector. As I said at stage 1, private landlords have since September 2007 been required to install such alarms to achieve the repairing standard if they have not already put in place provision for smoke detection. Moreover, any battery-operated alarms that landlords installed prior to September 2007 must be replaced with hard-wired detectors at the end of their five to 10-year lifespan. That means that all battery-operated detectors should be replaced with hard-wired systems by 2017. I believe that such a phased approach is sensible and proportionate and will achieve the amendment’s desired purpose in an incremental way and ensure the steady improvement of fire safety standards. Accordingly, I ask that Mr Griffin not move amendment 53 and, if he should, that the committee reject it.I am grateful to Bob Doris for lodging amendment 54 and raising the important issue of electrical safety in private rented homes. Regular electrical safety testing will give additional protection to tenants in the private rented sector and reduce the risk of exposure to unsafe electrical installations. As Mr Doris has pointed out, his proposal has been strongly supported by the Electrical Safety Council—or Electrical Safety First, as I believe it is now called—whose research suggests that 70 per cent of accidental fires in Scotland are caused by electricity. Amendment 54 will require landlords to ensure that such a test is completed at least once every five years, and tenants will also be provided with a copy of the most recent record of an inspection. As I believe that the proposal will strengthen housing standards and improve the safety of tenants in the private rented sector, I welcome it and urge the committee to support amendment 54.I have some concerns with Claudia Beamish’s amendment 48, which seeks to introduce a provision on energy efficiency standards in private rented sector properties. Under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and the Energy Act 2011, the Scottish ministers already have powers to introduce minimum standards for energy efficiency in private sector housing, and we are committed to improving energy efficiency to address fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions from housing. We are already working with stakeholders, including environmental, fuel poverty, local authority, private rented sector and consumer interests, to identify proposals for minimum energy efficiency standards for consultation in spring 2015. As well as being unnecessary, amendment 48 would not give us sufficient time to understand the issues that the working group has identified; after all, we need to take proper account of the evidence that we have commissioned on the level of regulation that is technically feasible and appropriate.Consultation on the Scottish Government’s sustainable housing strategy also indicated strong support for sufficient lead-in time for the sector to prepare for minimum standards. It is unsatisfactory that amendment 48 seeks to undermine that process: it would severely limit the opportunities to develop proposals that will be appropriate to the sector as a whole, and it could constrain its ability to deliver on it.I have proposed amendment 30 to enable the repairing standard to be amended by regulations, so, if the steering group on minimum energy efficiency standards in the private sector identifies that it would be appropriate to use the repairing standard to support improvement in energy efficiency work, that could be looked at in future, after appropriate consultation.For those reasons I do not consider that amendment 48 is necessary or that it would achieve the desired purpose, and I invite Ms Beamish to not to move amendment 48 and members not to support it.I have concerns about Jim Eadie’s amendment 5, which seeks to force private sector landlords to comply with majority decisions to complete repairs to common parts of a property. Owners already have a right under the tenement management scheme to pursue any non-complying owner for work agreed under a majority decision. In addition, owners already have a common duty to maintain any part of the building that provides support or shelter to any other part, and an owner can recover costs from any other owner.This bill takes important steps forward, as section 72 contains an amendment to the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004, which will allow a local authority discretionary power to pay a missing share on behalf of a non-co-operating owner and to recover the debt.For those reasons, amendment 5 is unnecessary to achieve the desired purpose and I ask members not to support it. I add that officials and I are continually in discussion and are happy discuss amendment 5 with Jim Eadie, but I do not think that we need to support it.Amendment 30, in my name, will create a new regulation-making power for the Scottish ministers to vary the detail of the repairing standard for private rented property without the need for further primary legislation. Any such variation to the standard will remain subject to parliamentary scrutiny. The amendment will make it easier to introduce improvements to accommodation standards in the private rented sector, including any further improvements to safety in the home for private tenants, should they be required. The Scottish Government’s proposed work on cross-tenure housing quality standards later this year will provide stakeholders with the opportunity to raise further issues regarding housing quality. The outcome of the consultation will be important in determining any further changes to housing standards. Amendment 30 will provide assurance that further changes to the repairing standard can be made following the outcome of the consultation. I therefore ask members to support amendment 30.