The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 301 contributions
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
Those are important and well-put questions. Information in the impact assessments that accompany the bill will give some indication of the differential impact and the intersectional aspects of inequality in relation to it. [Interruption.] I have just been told that those impact assessments have just been published, so they will be available to you.
It would be wrong not to reflect, as I did earlier, on the fact that data on the private rented sector is one of the areas where there is a lot more work to do. The social rented sector tends to be a better position, not only because of certain requirements, but because in many cases it is structurally easier to collect that data. The social rented sector has larger landlords, which operate mostly in a close geographic area and are well regulated. Because the private rented sector is much more fragmented, with many more individual landlords, it is much harder to collect that data under the current framework. That is something that we are looking to improve.
On the question of accessing the various support schemes and funds that the Government has put in place, I will certainly engage with my colleagues who are responsible for social security to make sure that we join the dots between the issues within their remit and the ways in which the bill and its reporting mechanisms will operate.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
I have not expressed concerns about the unworkability of the bill. I am satisfied that it is compliant and consistent with devolved competence.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
I assume that you are not still thinking about the social rented sector.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
We can certainly consider how we might put that on the agenda for the task and finish group and engage with the sector on that. There are many instances in which that happens and there are many more where it could happen, if the right support was in place. It is probably never going to be a blanket solution for every circumstance, but the member is right to bring the issue to our attention, and I will see whether we can write to the committee again on it soon, if we manage to put it on the task and finish group’s agenda for a response.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
The housing bill was, of course, included in the programme for government announcement. Therefore, we will be working at pace on that. I hope that the member will acknowledge that many of the officials who have been working incredibly hard at an incredible pace to bring forward the emergency legislation are the same people whose job it is to support us in the longer-term development of the housing bill. I will not say that there is no possibility of an impact, but we will be working on understanding any impact that not only developing but operating the emergency legislation will have on our longer-term work.
However, the intentions of that longer-term work are absolutely unchanged. They are not only to develop the proposals under the new deal for tenants and measures such as the national system of rent controls but to take that wider approach to preventing homelessness. I know that the committee has discussed many approaches to achieving that with the cabinet secretary.
Do you want to add anything, Mandy?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
I see.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
A rent increase notice needs to tell a tenant by how much a landlord intends to change the rent from the current rent level. Rent increase notices during the period will have to be consistent with the cap as it stands at any particular time, which is zero per cent initially, with the potential for that to be changed. Of course, some flexibilities have been built in, particularly where landlords are facing increased costs that are outwith their control as a result of letting out a property and making it available for rent. Those increased costs will be within the clearly defined limits of 50 per cent of the increased costs and a total of 3 per cent of the existing rent. Rent increase notices have to be issued in that way in terms of their relationship to existing rent.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
I come back to the points that were made earlier about engagement with the social rented sector. The social rented sector not only operates in a different way from the private rented sector around things such as reinvestment of rents and consultation mechanisms for rent setting, but it also provides a wider range of services. All of those things, as well as the investment in supply and quality, need to be protected, and we will engage actively with the social rented sector well ahead of any decision. In fact, that active engagement is already under way. We will make sure that we take account of all of those circumstances. Nobody, not the Government, tenants or the social rented sector, would want to endanger those services.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
Yes. We are defining “substantial rent arrears” as up to or the equivalent of six months’ rent in the private rented sector. We are using the specific figure of £2,250 in the social rented sector, which is roughly equivalent to six months’ average rent in that sector. Amanda, do you want to comment?
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 4 October 2022
Patrick Harvie
Rent increase notices that were issued before 6 September will not be covered by the cap.