Question reference: S6W-26428
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 22 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 17 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that its new Renters' Rights Campaign reaches older private renters, in light of the recently published report, Homing in: How to improve the lives of older renters in Scotland, by Independent Age, which found that only 30% of older renters feel fully informed of their housing rights.
Answer
The Scottish Government's Renters' Rights campaign ran from 27 February to 26 March 2024, aiming to increase awareness of both new and existing rights for all private tenants in Scotland.
We worked collaboratively with public and third sector partners to disseminate the campaign information, enabling them to reach minority audiences, specialist groups and those who are less likely to be online. This included the Older People’s Strategic Advisory Forum (OPSAF), who represent the following organisations: Age Scotland, Generations Working Together, LGBT Age Project, Outside the Box, We are Hourglass, Independent Age, Scottish Trades Union Congress, The Scottish Older People’s Assembly, Faith in Older People, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, Glasgow Disability Alliance and Minority Ethnic Carers of People Programme.
Renters’ Rights information was also directly provided to Citizens Advice Bureaux, Crisis, Living Rent, Property Mark, Scottish Landlords, Scottish Land and Estates, UK Finance, Poverty Alliance, Generation Rent, the Scottish Property Federation, the Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland, Local Authorities, NHS Health Boards, Social Security Scotland and third sector equality partners such as BEMIS and CEMVO.
It is vitally important that all tenants, including older renters, are aware of the strong rights and protections available to them and we will continue to identify opportunities and work with a range of key partners in order to continue to raise awareness.