Question reference: S6W-23810
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 12 December 2023 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 10 January 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it will take, beyond rent adjudication, to protect tenants in the period between the lifting of the rent cap on 1 April 2024 and the introduction of a national system of rent controls.
Answer
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 sets out that upon the ending of the emergency rent cap, we will introduce temporary measures to support an appropriate transition in order to prevent tenants potentially facing unmanageable rent increases from 1 April 2024.
Over and above this, it is important to bear in mind that prior to the introduction of the emergency measures, private tenants in Scotland already benefitted from some of the strongest protections in the UK. This included landlords only being able to increase rents once in a 12 month period, and the requirement that tenants’ be provided with at least three months’ advance notice of that increase, giving them time to prepare and make necessary arrangements where appropriate.
It is vitally important that tenants are made aware of both the temporary transitional measures that will be put in place, and existing rights afforded to them by the Private Residential Tenancy. Therefore, a key part of our work in advance of the emergency Act coming to an end, will be to raise awareness of those rights with private tenants as we support a transition away from the temporary rent cap and look towards the introduction of long-term rent control via the next Housing Bill.