Chamber and committees

I want to move on to the exemptions in the bill, which we have now seen. What is your view on that quite substantial set of exemptions, which include “substantial rent arrears”? What potential impact might they have? With regard to, for example, repossession of a rental property by a bank, would that result in the property being able to be sold but not allow an individual to remain in it?

I am asking about the concerns that were expressed previously about Labour’s proposals.

Given the concerns that you have expressed previously about the unworkability of such a bill, do you expect a legal challenge to the bill?

What revisions will be in the bill for housing associations that are providing supported accommodation for vulnerable groups? They have additional costs that are associated with supporting residents, and those costs are often built into rent increases. Has there been a discussion with the sector about any additional costs that they will be facing?

From the outset of the debate and during the passage of the bill through the Parliament, I recognise that the Scottish Government’s intention is to look at how best we can support tenants during the cost of living crisis. After the unprecedented help for energy bills that is being provided by the UK Government, people across Scotland are, rightly, looking to both of Scotland’s Governments for support to assist individuals and families through a difficult period. However, the bill will do little to increase the incomes of most social housing and private tenants; instead, it will threaten the Scottish Government’s ambitions on affordable house building and climate change, as well as the ability of housing associations and private landlords to provide their tenants with the targeted support that is required during difficult times.

Members on the Conservative benches would have welcomed the opportunity to discuss workable policies with the Scottish Government; however, a 15-minute meeting with the minister after the bill was published and the use of the emergency legislation process to railroad the bill through Parliament have not presented that opportunity. Most people in the sector will find that that will have a negative impact going forward. Private and social landlords should have been brought around the table to discuss policies on, for example, rent stabilisation and the further use and development of the tenants charter. Instead, they have been left in the dark and now face an uncertain future, given the significant unintended consequences that the bill presents.

I am not sure that the minister understands his own bill, because it is backdated to September and the extensions that he has outlined mean that there is the potential for the provisions to last up to 18 months. The minister probably needs to rethink that.

The Scottish housing market is complex, especially in the capital. We all rely on the mixed housing market to provide the homes that Scotland needs now and in the future. The decision by SNP-Green ministers has been made without any consultation with the sector, and it will have consequences.

In Scotland, we have never had Government rent controls in the social housing sector. Rightly, housing associations are independent organisations that have been able to set rents each year, taking into account tenant feedback, affordability and the resources that are required to invest in maintaining properties and buildings, as well as building much-needed homes, which the Government has also failed to achieve.

The bill’s impact is, therefore, worrying, as the bill goes against the historical position and brings in the possibility of wider rent controls for the sector, the shattering of confidence to invest in new affordable homebuilding programmes and the real prospect of private landlords removing private rented properties from the market in the coming years.

For housing associations and private landlords, the bill presents a risk of hundreds of millions of pounds of lost income. It might require them to rewrite their future business plans and scrap investment in new affordable home builds, and it will undermine budget simulations for energy efficiency and decarbonisation for net zero—both key Government targets and the minister’s specific responsibility—which will be impacted.

The bill has already significantly impacted the potential delivery of new homes in Scotland; it will be much harder for housing associations to plan, if they are able to do so. Lenders might be nervous about lending, or they might lend at higher margins as confidence over future rental income decreases.

The bill introduces a risk that has not previously existed in Scotland—historically, we have had lower rents. It will undoubtedly trigger a slowing down of the building and construction of affordable homes and it could trigger a wider downturn in the construction industry at the worst possible time for our economy.

The cabinet secretary needs to look at inflation across the eurozone.

More specifically, just a few months ago, both the minister and the cabinet secretary—[Interruption.]

Will the member take an intervention?

Can the minister outline why the figure of 3 per cent was arrived at as the maximum increase for rents agreed by the adjudicator?

I move that we do not support the suspension of the standing orders. The Scottish Government has insisted on enforcing an emergency legislation timetable in relation to the bill. That has meant that members saw the content of the bill only late last night, leaving them little time before the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee met this morning and before they are being expected to debate the bill and vote on its general principles.

Prior to the introduction of Covid-19 emergency legislation, consultation was undertaken with the sectors that were directly impacted, but that is not the case with this bill. The Scottish housing market is complex, and unintended consequences of the bill will be clear. However, the decision by Scottish National Party-Green ministers has been made without any consultation with the sector’s representative bodies, and has resulted in much frantic activity since the announcement was made by the First Minister to assess the negative impacts that the bill will clearly have.

I hope that Parliament will consider that we need the opportunity to properly consider the bill and its impact. The process under which the bill has been introduced is unacceptable and flawed, and the Government has tried to bypass any in-depth scrutiny from Parliament. Organisations and businesses that will be impacted have highlighted that to us all.

I therefore ask ministers to provide members with the same opportunity that they had with the emergency Covid legislation to look at the bill in more detail, and I urge members to vote against the suspension of standing orders.