Chamber and committees

I will continue that line of questioning from Miles Briggs. You said at the start of your opening statement that you wanted to give local authorities powers to address concerns. It is clear that there are concerns in some local authority areas, but we have not heard the same level of concern in other areas. Was any consideration given to devolving the powers completely to local authorities, giving them the discretion to decide whether to introduce a licensing scheme to address their local circumstances?

Has there been any consideration of running pilot projects in local authorities that have particular concerns?

I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am the owner of a rented property in North Lanarkshire.

Scottish Labour welcomes the publication of the draft rented sector strategy consultation—which has arrived, finally, at the end of the year—because we have long called for more meaningful Government intervention in the private rented sector, in improving tenants’ rights and in protecting people from rising rents, as my colleague Pauline McNeill’s Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill and her general work in campaigning last session would have done.

Once again, with more restrictions expected soon, on top of the reinstatement of widespread self-isolation rules, the pandemic forces us to acknowledge that our homes have never meant so much to us. Once again, if we have somewhere that we can call home and that is warm and safe, that is the first line of defence against Covid.

We will support the motion, and we agree with the aims of the strategy. Tenants must have secure and stable tenancies, rights that allow them to truly live in them, a pause clause, a chance to decorate, continued safeguards against eviction and private sector rent controls. However, we also want to use the debate to ask the Government to take immediate action, because Covid continues to exacerbate the housing crisis. How quickly we move will be key.

Last month, the First Minister told me that the Government is

“happy to engage about the timing of legislation on rent controls.”—[Official Report, 18 November 2021; c 28.]

Our amendment therefore singularly seeks to hold the Government to that and to secure agreement that the framework for rent controls will be put in legislation sooner rather than later, via the forthcoming housing bill.

We certainly do not expect the legislation to come into force in year 2 of this parliamentary session, but we would look for the details of the framework for the rules, and data for the broad system that we expect to be implemented, to be in the forthcoming housing bill.

Let us not forget that rent controls are needed urgently. The number of children in private rented housing living in severe poverty more than doubled in the decade from 2008. Living Rent has said that it is ready to go on the matter. Its proposed points-based system, which would link rents to the quality of property, aligns with the strategy’s vision. That link to quality would provide an incentive for landlords to make improvements and would be a block on landlords who refuse to do so. It is important that it would also attach the control to the property and not to the lease. That landmark reform would deal with the fundamentals of costly rents and would be a step towards implementing the human right to an adequate home for all.

However, 2023 is still a lifetime away for renters who are struggling now. The situation for those tenants is reaching crisis point and, as Living Rent says, they cannot wait another five or so years for the protections.

A major cost-of-living crisis is just weeks away. Energy bills are set to rocket by 40 per cent in April and, last month, the Government’s own statistics showed that in 2020 there were inflation-bursting rent increases in West Dunbartonshire, Ayrshire, Fife, Forth Valley and Lanarkshire. The contribution of rents to November’s unprecedented 5 per cent inflation was the highest since March 2016.

The starting point that we are at is bleak. Almost 150,000 people are waiting for a social or council house and homelessness applications are up. After a University of Glasgow report estimated that £126 million is owed in the private rented sector and that social arrears jumped £9 million over the summer, it looks as though arrears in the rented sector have topped £300 million.

Changes to the notice period and pre-action protocols for evictions have been proved to keep people in their homes, so those measures should stay. I look forward to working with the Government on that commitment. I echo the calls from Living Rent and Shelter for the reforms to be made permanent as we go into the new year. That would prevent an evictions crisis in the short term, but given the fast-developing situation with omicron, the Government must also consider extending the evictions ban.

The importance of stability and security for renters is not secondary to affordability. It is fundamental to a sense of self and to the ability to make choices. Security stems from the ability to call a place home, as the minister pointed out. People without open space, a spare room and the freedom to have a pet or to redecorate have endured a miserable pandemic, regardless of their tenure. People who had those—mostly owner occupiers—could work from home, do renovations and consider upsizing.

Research from Crisis also found that more than 40 per cent of employers are unprepared to support a homeless employee and would even consider terminating their employment. That is a devastating statistic that reinforces the call that Pam Duncan-Glancy made for a winter evictions ban to be put in place right now.

I support the strategy that the minister outlined and look forward to working with the Government on it.

I move amendment S6M-02625.2, to insert after “private sector”:

“; agrees that the legislation establishing the framework for these rent controls must be included in the forthcoming Housing Bill in the second year of the current parliamentary session”

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government will require large retail stores to close on new year’s day 2022 so that retail workers can spend the day with their loved ones. (S6F-00579)

The First Minister will know that, despite what she says, there is deep disappointment with the Government’s decision not to use existing powers to close large retail stores on new year’s day. The Government has made that decision against not only the overwhelming response from workers, who are in favour of closure, but a Government report that states that closure is unlikely to have a significant negative effect on the economy.

The First Minister rightly alluded to the fact that shop workers deserve the kind of festive break that the rest of us benefit from. However, the Government has not enacted legislation that would do just that for the vast majority of Scottish shop workers.

What would the First Minister say to retail workers who again cannot spend new year’s day safely with their families? What are the Government’s plans to deliver a decent break for shop workers over the festive period, after they have worked so hard during the pandemic?

My questions follow on from the discussion that we have just had. One is about data; the other is about how we adapt any system locally.

My first question is for Andrew Mitchell, because he talked about a study that had taken place in Edinburgh in 2018. Do we know how many short-term lets there are in the country? Do we know the scale of the issue that we are regulating for? If not, and if we are doing this in the absence of data, how can we be sure that we are going to get it right? Has there been a refresh of the 2018 study to ensure that we know the scale of what we are trying to accomplish?

That brings me to my second question. Do you feel that a national system should be introduced or are there particular local authority areas that would rather not spend their resources on what they might not see as a pressing local issue? Perhaps we can kick off with Nicola Robison. Does Police Scotland have any data on antisocial behaviour issues in this respect? Is that sort of thing common across the country or is it much more localised? Moreover, if anyone wanted to talk about the issue of a national approach versus devolving powers to local authorities to run something locally, I would welcome it.

Thank you.

The duty to work from home is a recognition that workplaces are an increased transmission risk. It has been raised previously that many key workers cannot work from home. They face a continued heightened risk of getting Covid at work, and then, potentially, long Covid. What support will be offered to key workers who are now unable to work in the long term, due to long Covid that they caught while they were doing their jobs? Does the First Minister accept that long Covid should be made an industrial disease under Scotland’s benefits system, now that the UK Industrial Injuries Advisory Council has refused to classify it in that way?