SNP betraying tenants with watered down rent controls
The SNP will be betraying tenants across Scotland if it goes ahead with plans to water down rent controls and impose above inflation rent hikes, say the Scottish Greens.
The comments from the party's social justice spokesperson, Maggie Chapman, follow a Ministerial Statement by the Housing Minister, Paul Mclennan, which announced proposals that would allow rents to be increased above inflation and by up to 6%, even in rent control areas.
The bill was originally published by then Scottish Green Minister Patrick Harvie and followed an emergency rent freeze. The announcement comes just five months after MSPs declared a Housing Emergency.
Ms Chapman said:
“This is a shameful betrayal of tenants. It will impose above inflation rent hikes on households all over Scotland.
“Stabilising rents at unaffordable levels is no use to anyone, apart from profiteering landlords. If the SNP goes ahead with these disastrous plans they will be selling-out renters and entrenching a broken and unfair system.
“Everyone should have a warm, secure and affordable place to call home, but what the Minister is proposing flies in the face of that aspiration. These proposals do not tackle unaffordability and would not give tenants in the private rented sector the security or stability they’ve been promised.
“The landlord lobby has had a disproportionate voice in the corridors of power for far too long. This has created a desperate situation where tenants across our country are living with fear and anxiety because they don’t know if they can continue to afford their homes.
“This is yet another example of an SNP government that is shedding its progressive credentials. I urge them to rethink their proposals and work with us to deliver a Housing Bill that transforms housing in Scotland and gives tenants the security, stability and peace of mind that everyone deserves.
“Homes should be for living in, not for profiteering.”