Chamber and committees

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.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Has the Scottish Parliament provided all members with reassurance that the bill is compliant with article 1 of the first protocol of the European convention on human rights? There are rumours that there will be a legal challenge to the bill. Given that the Parliament has previously been informed about poor legislation facing legal challenge, will the Scottish Government let Parliament know about that?

Will the minister take an intervention?

Will the minister take an intervention?

The money that the tenant grant fund issues is a loan. Do ministers intend to provide that as a grant that would not be paid back?

The key point is that the bill will make the situation worse. The cabinet secretary and her Government have presided over 15 years of this housing crisis, and the bill will supercharge it. In the years to come, the situation can only get worse for students if fewer rented properties are available, which will clearly be the impact of the bill.

What we have already seen from this SNP-Green Government is that it is likely to use its majority in Parliament to push the legislation through without listening to genuine concerns or accepting amendments.

Scottish Conservatives will look to bring common sense and safeguards to the bill. We will ask that the concerns of key sectors, such as social and charitable housing associations, are reflected in the bill—that is vitally important. We also want to see additional resources for tribunals, which will now be tasked with extra work.

It is critical that there is incorporation of robust planning and monitoring of the potential negative impacts of the bill—the minister did not really outline that in any detail.

It is unclear for how long ministers intend to freeze rents or keep rent controls in place, beyond what the First Minister described in relation to 31 March. We need to see a time limit put in place. What mitigation measures will be provided for social and private landlords?

The process through which the bill has been introduced has been unacceptable, flawed and designed to bypass any independent scrutiny that the Parliament could bring to bear. The very organisations that the bill will impact have also not been part of the conversation. SNP, Green and Labour MSPs are about to use Scotland as a guinea pig. They are about to undermine the foundations of Scotland’s housing market.

International rent control schemes demonstrate the negative impact that rent controls can have and suggest the long-term negative consequences for our Scottish mixed housing market. We know how this will end: fewer private lets, a slump in building affordable homes, increased rents for future tenants and students unable to secure vital accommodation in order to study at university.

SNP, Green and Labour MSPs will be directly to blame for the significant damage done to our housing sector. The greater housing crisis that will come from this will be at their desks. I hope that they will make sure that the people of Scotland hold them accountable for their actions.

I am not sure that, when Scottish Labour envisaged rent control, it envisaged that the social rental sector would be such an integral part of the policy. Would Labour members therefore vote to remove it from the legislation, given the unintended consequences of the bill, which the sector’s representatives are raising with elected members?

Just a few months ago, Scottish National Party and Green ministers—including the minister and cabinet secretary who are sitting on the front bench—described Scottish Labour’s proposals around rent freeze schemes as “unworkable” and said that those schemes would

“heighten the risk of eviction”

for tenants. The bill will introduce opportunities that could lead to that situation, so that is where ministers need to be clear. Let us consider Ireland, where a similar policy has resulted in a 30 per cent increase in homelessness.

We have already seen, and continue to see, a record number of people living in temporary accommodation in Edinburgh and across Scotland. The bill has the potential to supercharge the housing crisis, with fewer private tenancies being made available, fewer new affordable homes being built and the ripping up of the very tenants rights framework that we are told ministers want to see protect tenants. For example, the circumventing of local authority rent-setting processes will override not only the statutory responsibilities of elected members but the local processes that are currently in place to allow tenants to have a constructive opportunity to have their say in rent setting and negotiations.

There is growing concern in the housing sector around the unintended consequences of the bill, and I hope that the minister heard it during this morning’s committee meeting. We have already seen the impacts on students, as members have outlined, with both the University of Glasgow and the University of Stirling telling students not to matriculate unless they have secured accommodation. One of the key aspects of the bill is its unintended consequences.

An important part of this, which you have outlined, concerns the projected lack of uptake of the benefits that are currently available. When it comes to this year’s in-year spend, where do other benefits—for example, the best start grant—sit, and are those also being earmarked as potential areas in which finance is currently allocated but may not be spent?