A New Deal for Tenants
Living Rent policy note
While the Coronavirus pandemic placed considerable extra strains on Scotland's tenants, in many ways it simply exacerbated existing problems. Whether it was tenants being driven into debt by unaffordable rents or suffering months of lockdown in damp, cold, and poor-quality homes, many of the problems tenants faced are not new - indeed, they are the products of decades of failed housing policy.
As we recover from the pandemic, the Scottish Government has an opportunity to truly address the fundamental, underlying problems that have made so many tenants' lives a misery - before, during and after the pandemic. Doing so is vital to our national recovery and to building a fairer future for Scotland’s tenants.
These two policy notes from Living Rent, Scotland’s tenants’ union, are not an attempt to cover in detail everything that needs to change in Scotland's housing, but rather an overview of the priorities and ambitions that this Parliament must bring to implement a genuine new deal for private, social and public tenants.
The Scottish Government urgently needs to bring forward rent control measures to tackle the unaffordability crisis, introduce regulations and enforcement to give greater protections to private and social tenants, and ensure that repairs and energy standards are enforced, without tenants left to foot the bill for refurbishment. Any strategy that fails to deliver these ambitions will leave tenants to face another five years of housing crisis.
You can read them here:
* A New Deal for Private Tenants
* A New Deal for Social and Public Tenants