Local Government and Communities Committee

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Official Report 592KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 (Modification of Schedule 1) Regulations 2019 [Draft]

Agenda item 2 is consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument that would modify various aspects of schedule 1 to the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016. The committee will take evidence on the instrument. I welcome Kevin Stewart, the Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning; and, from the Scottish Government, Linda Leslie, who is the head of private rented sector policy; and Kirsten Simonnet-Lefevre, who is a principal legal officer.

The instrument has been laid under affirmative procedure, which means that Parliament must approve it before the provisions can come into force. Following the evidence session, the committee will be invited at the next agenda item to consider the motion to approve the instrument. I invite the minister to make a short opening statement.

I am pleased to be at the committee this morning to present the regulations which, if approved, would modify schedule 1 to the Private Housing (Tenancies) Act 2016 to safeguard models of housing for veterans and care leavers.

The new private residential tenancy replaced short assured and assured tenancies. The underlying principle of the new tenancy is to improve security, stability and predictability for tenants, and to provide appropriate safeguards for landlords, lenders and investors. New tenancies granted in the private rented sector on and after 1 December 2017 are private residential tenancies, unless they are listed in schedule 1 to the 2016 act. Schedule 1 lists the tenancies that cannot be private residential tenancies.

I thank the Scottish Veterans Garden City Association for raising the issues with Graeme Dey, the Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans, and me, and for its continued support in working closely with my officials and others to find a workable solution to the current issues, which include automatic succession rights for tenants who are not disabled veterans and restricted turnover of temporary accommodation.

My officials, with the support of the SVGCA, other veteran groups, and the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland consulted other charitable organisations in the sector to identify the size and scale of the problem. They identified one other service model that is used by Barnardo’s—that is, a registered private landlord with charitable status. Barnardo’s provides temporary accommodation with support for care leavers until they are able to move into their own home to live independently. It agreed the need for the amendment to enable it to continue providing that model of support to care leavers.

The proposed regulations would modify schedule 1 to the 2016 act to ensure that private residential tenancies cannot be granted where a charity provides accommodation to veterans or temporary accommodation to care leavers. There is nothing in the amendments that would prevent Barnardo’s from offering a private residential tenancy where permanent accommodation is more suitable for a care leaver.

Finally, I add some reassurance for the committee. Charities have told us that they are still likely to use the model tenancy agreement for the private residential tenancy as best practice when offering permanent or temporary accommodation. The regulations would provide the flexibility for them to adapt the model to suit their charitable purpose.

I am happy to answer any questions on the instrument.

Why were the proposed exemptions not incorporated in 2016?

We tried to cover all bases, as we do on many occasions, but sometimes we do not achieve that. It was not until a meeting last October that Graeme Dey and I found that there could be difficulties for the veterans organisations, so we moved swiftly to resolve that. At the same time, we did a piece of work to see whether there could be future difficulties for other organisations, which was when we found that Barnardo’s was in a similar position with some of the housing that it operates.

We have moved quickly and worked with the organisations. We have found only those two anomalies. If we had found or been told about them previously, they would have been in schedule 1 to the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Bill from the very beginning.

The instrument refers to

“a charity providing accommodation to veterans, or ... a charity providing temporary accommodation to a care leaver.”

What about organisations that do those things but are not charities? There might not be any, but if a social enterprise was providing accommodation to veterans it would not be covered.

I am not aware of any such organisation acting as a social enterprise rather than a charity. However, if such an organisation were to come forward, we would look closely at the situation, as we do in all cases. Ms Leslie and her team have done their level best to seek out any other anomalies and we are not aware of any.

Is the reason for referring to charities—rather than organisations—providing accommodation to veterans that those who provide such accommodation are all charities?

I will bring in Ms Leslie, because she has done most of the running on that.

We are not aware of any other type of organisation that provides that kind of accommodation, other than registered social landlords, and they are obviously not required to use the private residential tenancy. The provision covers a particular group of organisations that we would have added to schedule 1 if, as the minister said, we had received representation about that while the 2016 act was being scrutinised by Parliament. The concerns were specifically about undermining the charitable objects of those organisations.

So the concern was as much to do with undermining their charitable objects as with the veterans and the care that they would need.

Correct.

That is why you have made explicit reference to charities.

Yes.

As there are no other questions, we move to agenda item 3, which is formal consideration of motion S5M-17292.

Motion moved,

That the Local Government and Communities Committee recommends that the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 (Modification of Schedule 1) Regulations 2019 [draft] be approved.—[Kevin Stewart]

Motion agreed to.

The committee will report on the outcome of the instrument in due course. I invite the committee to delegate authority to me, as convener, to approve a draft of the report for publication. Are we agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

09:53 Meeting suspended.  

09:55 On resuming—