Housing (Scotland) Bill completes passage through parliament

The Housing (Scotland) Bill, which was first laid before parliament in March 2024, has now completed its final stage of scrutiny in the Scottish Parliament and will become law once it receives Royal Assent from the King.

In the final stage of voting there were no significant changes to the wording of the bill related to the private rented sector (PRS). SAL campaigned against several concerning amendments put forward by the Scottish Greens including a proposal to introduce a winter ban on evictions and prevent tenants from being evicted during the first 12 months of a tenancy. We are pleased to report that these amendments were disagreed to by parliament and therefore will not be added to the legislation.

The Bill contains a number of provisions which will make changes to the Private Rented Sector (PRS) including long-term rent controls which will apply within Rent Control Areas (RCAs) designated by the government, greater rights for tenants to personalise their home, obtain permission for a pet and end a joint tenancy where there is disagreement between the tenants about ending the lease. It also makes provision for the government to introduce further legislation in the future to convert older assured and short-assured tenancies in to private residential tenancies. Whilst many of these measures will not be welcomed by landlords, an analysis of the hundreds of proposed amendments to the legislation, many of which could have been extremely damaging to the sector if introduced, shows that the outcome could have been a lot worse without SAL’s campaigning.

Throughout the passage of the Bill it has been clear that parliament was in favour of the measures set out in the Bill, including rent controls, being introduced. SAL’s focus was therefore on making them as balanced and proportionate as possible. We managed to secure an amendment at stage two to ensure that instead of the legislation potentially allowing rent increases to be frozen within RCAs, rents can instead be increased at 1% above the rate of inflation (subject to a maximum increase of 6%). We have also more recently secured a commitment from the Cabinet Secretary for Housing to explore regulating to allow for above-cap rent increases in situations where landlords have kept their rent consistently below market rent, or where there has been investment in improvements to the quality of the property.

The final wording of the Bill is the best outcome we could reasonably have wished for and we are delighted that our campaigning has paid off and that the government and MSPs have listened to our concerns.

The provisions in the Bill affecting the PRS now require secondary legislation to be drafted and approved to set out the finer details of how they will operate. For example, we need regulations on exactly how RCAs will operate and importantly which properties will be exempt and in which circumstances an above-cap rent increase will be allowed within an RCA. We also need further regulations to detail under what circumstances it is reasonable for a landlord to refuse permission for tenants to have a pet or personalise a property, what conditions can reasonably be attached to any consent given and what types of changes a tenant can make by way of personalisation. Websites, forms and guidance need to be produced for rent/property data collection by local authorities, ending joint tenancies and requesting/giving permission for pets/personalisation. This means that it is still likely to be another year or two (and possibly longer for some provisions) before they come into force.

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