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Rented Sector Strategy - 4 October 2021

Letter from Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights to the Convener - 4 October 2021

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Dear Ariane,

As the Committee will be aware, the Scottish Government published Housing to 2040 in May this year. It is Scotland’s first ever long-term national housing strategy and sets out a vision for what we want housing to look like and how it will be provided to the people of Scotland - no matter where they live and what point in their life they are in.

Housing to 2040 commits us to delivering a new Rented Sector Strategy, one that considers the social and private rented sectors as a whole and I wanted to take this opportunity to update the Committee on the progress of this work.

This Strategy will now also reflect the additional commitments included in the Scottish Government and Scottish Greens Party Co-operation Agreement, and will set out how we will deliver a new deal for tenants – giving them more secure, stable, affordable tenancies with improved standards of accommodation, new controls on rent and more flexibility to personalise homes.

We aim to publish a draft Strategy for consultation by the end of this year, before publishing a final version later in 2022 following analysis of the consultation responses. Some elements of the Strategy will need changes to legislation, so as a first step we have commited to introducing a Housing Bill in year 2 of this Parliament and acknowledge that further legislation will be needed later in the term.

Of course, setting out an ambitious, long term vision for the whole rented sector - one that seeks to improve property condition, management standards and affordability - cannot be achieved alone and we are therefore working closely with a range of key stakeholders from across the sectors to ensure all views are taken into consideration.


Crucially, Housing to 2040 also sets out that tenant participation will be at the heart of the strategy’s development. In particular, understanding private tenants’ lived experiences and hearing their views.

I am therefore delighted that we will be working in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation over the coming months, to take forward a project to hear directly from low income tenants as part of developing the Strategy.

We are also enlisting the support of the Tenants Information Service and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service to deliver a series of focus groups with a number of other specific groups including students who rent privately and those living in mid-market rented properties, to inform the development of the draft Strategy. Gathering tenants’ views as we seek to develop our Strategy will help us to deliver a fairer, more affordable and more accessible private rented sector.

I trust this information is helpful and I will of course keep the Committee updated as we progress this important area of work.

PATRICK HARVIE