Glasgow's renters face a perfect storm.
The city’s private rented sector has doubled in just 10 years. Buy-to-let has grabbed huge chunks of first time buyer properties, driving up prices and leaving renters trapped.
Adding to that, their rents are soaring out of control, year after year. New data shows that in the past ten years rents have grown a whopping 41%, almost double the rate of inflation.
They are paying for properties which are often substandard and costly to run, adding to endemic poverty among private renters.
And now the pandemic has exposed how insecure private tenants are too. The Scottish Government was forced to delay evictions but it won't act to stop them entirely.
This is a crisis.
The Council’s Housing Strategy is only focused on improving the standards of rented properties. That's needed, but it does nothing to fix the real problems.
And the Scottish Government's answer to rising rents - allowing councils to ask their permission to set up rent pressure zones - cannot be implemented. The law is a mess.
That's why Scottish Greens Councillors are calling on Glasgow City Council to recognise this is a crisis and to demand the powers to fix it.
You can read the motion we are bringing to the next Council meeting on 10 December and if you agree, please email your local Councillors urging them to vote for it.
With your help we can win action which puts tenants first and values housing as a human right.