Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not had discussions with the Bank of England regarding its assessment of the financial stability risks associated with buy-to-let investors exiting the market and how this might impact on Scotland. The Bank of England has responsibility for financial stability, and publically reports on its assessment through the financial stability report and meetings of its Financial Policy Committee.

Responsibility for administration of the Landlord Registration Scheme rests with local authorities and Information on the number of prosecutions is not held by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government does monitor local authority Landlord registration enforcement activity. Since January 2011, 25 cases have been reported to the procurator fiscal, prior to this time this figure was not collated centrally.

With reference to other sanctions under landlord registration legislation, local authorities undertake a range of work to pro-actively enforce Landlord registration and improve standards. For example, since April 2008, there have been
36,637 late application fees applied and 8,590 rent penalty notices served, 321 action or improvement plans were instigated, 86 landlords have been deemed to be not “fit and proper” and 139 landlords have been refused registration or had their registration revoked.

Since 2006, £20.7 million has been paid by landlords making online fee payments to local authorities. The Scottish Government does not keep figures for payments made in offline applications or by invoiced payments made directly to local authorities. These fees are retained by local authorities to assist with meeting the cost of the regime. Landlord registration does not receive funding from any other source.

Local rent controls formed part of the Scottish Government’s proposals in the second consultation on a new tenancy for the private sector and sixteen local authorities commented on the approach outlined.

The Scottish Government has not had any discussions with either the German or Swedish governments.

The Scottish Government does not hold any information on whether the introduction of local rent controls in other countries has impacted on the level of new housing supply.

Local rent controls formed part of the Scottish Government’s proposals in the Second Consultation on a New Tenancy for the Private Sector and a number of institutional investors commented on the approach outlined. The Private Rented Sector (PRS) Champion and PRS Working Party, which the Scottish Government is part of, have had discussions with a range of interested parties including investors interested in supporting the private rental market in Scotland.

Landlord registration did not commence until 2006 and the first figures we have are from 2007. The following table gives a yearly breakdown of the number of applications for registration in each year.

Information on the source data collection methodology for Private Sector Rent Statistics, Scotland 2010 to 2014 is available in Annex C of the statistical publication at: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/11/2313.

The Scottish Government has assessed the impact of local rent controls on the private rented sector in the Private Tenancies Bill Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment, which will be published on the Scottish Government’s website shortly.