Rent Control

Rent Control

We want practical and workable rent controls implemented. We fully support the work of Living Rent - Scotland's tenants' union, fighting for decent and affordable housing for all. Below is an extract from Living Rent's website:

Why Rent Controls?

Rents in Scotland are out of control - over the last 12 months rents have gone up by by almost 10% in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Highlands, with many other areas seeing big increases.
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has shown that the number of people living in poverty who live in the private rented sector has tripled over the last decade.
High rents trap people in private rented housing, by leaving them with not enough at the end of the month to put towards a deposit. That creates a vicious cycle where people have no other options in terms of housing.
The effects of high rents are disproportionately felt amongst already disadvantaged groups. Women, young people, and migrant communities – who typically earn less than the average – are hit twice as hard by high rents.
The quality of private rented housing is also unacceptable - in 2016, the Scottish House Conditions Survey found that 60% of privately rented homes was in a state of disrepair - worse than for any other tenure type. If rent controls were linked to the quality of housing, it would provide an immediate incentive for landlords to improve the quality.
Rents controls are also really popular - a recent poll shows 75% support across Scotland, and 85% amongst SNP voters.

What’s Our Proposal?

The rent controls we are proposing take the best aspects from models across Europe and to learn from the challenges these models have faced, to build a model specific for Scotland’s needs:

We want a points-based system that links the maximum rent a landlord can charge to the quality of the flat; this would act as a carrot for them to make improvements, and a stick for landlords who refuse to do so.
This would also be attached to the property, not the lease - meaning that tenants moving out wouldn’t have any impact on the rent.
We also want rents limited to a specific Rent Affordability Index to ensure that they are affordable for tenants in any given area.
To oversee this all, we want a new Scottish Living Rent Commission to act as an umbrella body and a centre of expertise and regulation in the private rented sector.

Why Not Rent Pressure Zones?

In 2016, the Scottish Government introduced “Rent Pressure Zones”, and these were meant to stop unaffordable rents - but they have failed utterly:

The burden of proof on local authorities is unreasonable and creates unnecessary barriers in making successful applications. No council has successfully been able to use these powers.
RPZs only create rental limits within tenancies and do not prevent rent hikes between tenancies—doing little to stabilise rents in the long term and creating dangerous side-effects.
RPZs only limit increases in rent, so do not address the fact that rents in much of Scotland are already too high.
RPZs do nothing to improve the quality of Scotland’s PRS housing stock. As detailed below, we believe this is a significant missed opportunity and that proper rent controls represent a powerful tool to improve the quality of Scotland’s PRS stock.
The 2016 Act sought to provide greater tenant security, but without workable controls on rent, landlords can easily force out tenants through rent increases.
RPZs can only be applied to small, localised areas, so cannot address the scale and degree of the rent problem in Scotland.

This is the end of extract from Living Rent's website.

Living Rent Edinburgh can help local tenants based in Edinburgh with any landlord issues. If you are a Gorgie Dalry tenant, do consider joining the Gorgie Dalry branch as they meet monthly online (Contact: gorgiedalry@livingrent.org).

Housing Policies

Here are some of our policy ideas that we believe will go a long way in addressing some of the inflation busting rent rise issues.

Rent Control

Holyrood urgently needs to review rent control legislation to enable a workable system which allows proper rent control on both private and social lets in local hotspots and this must be a priority early in the next parliament. Inspired by the proposals of Living Rent, Scotland could introduce true, national rent controls. Rents could be set on a points-based system, with points earned for the quality and amenities of a given property. Building on the benefits of recent years - the scrapping of lettings fees and fixed term leases Scotland could go a lot further and become a nation where renting exploitation is ended.

Rent Affordability Index

A new Scottish Rent Affordability Index could take local trends and incomes into account, setting maximum rent levels. Together with this index, a Scottish Living Rent Commission would act as an umbrella body, and a centre of expertise and regulation, likely working with existing rent structures such as Security Deposits Scotland.

National Register of Landlords & Tenants

Implement a National Register of Landlords and Tenants to address the power imbalance, it would mean increasing accountability and penalties for non-complaint landlords who will be required to meet acceptable minimal standards before renting out homes. Renters could check up on their landlord before signing a contract and have somewhere to turn if they are mistreated.

A Single Centre for Renting, tied to a Landlord and Tenant Register

Building on the drive for rent controls, we should look at expanding the existing Scottish Landlord Register. This currently collects landlord details into a single national register, but it is full of missing information, and is limited in use. What we are imagining is an expanded Scottish Tenant, Landlord and Agency Register (STELAR). Here, all tenant, landlord, and letting agency details would be collected in a single place, easily accessible over the internet.

Tenants no longer need to register information a hundred times in slightly different ways with every letting agent. This also makes moving

around Scotland far easier. They no longer have to provide references of past tenancies (which were always useless as actual evidence of good behaviour): those would all be on record. You could opt-in to sending proof of your regular, on-time rent payments to credit agencies which then improves your credit rating.

You also have references for every landlord in Scotland - they cannot hide neglect. Landlords could see tenants’ track record of paying their rent, without needing to ask for a reference. Recording all repairs, complaints and improvements will demonstrate a landlord’s responsibility.

The information stored on this expanded register would help create and calibrate rent controls as proposed above, and also be linked to Safe Deposits Scotland. With the extra assurances provided by this register, tenants could transfer deposits between properties. This would avoid the squeeze of paying a new deposit while the old one has not been returned.