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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 24 November 2024
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Displaying 575 contributions

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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

That first-time buyer could be somebody coming out of the rented sector, which releases the property that they are coming from.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

There was a form of rent control in place at the time when 8 per cent of rents increased, but not when 45 per cent did.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

Derek McGowan and Lisa Mallon, I do not know whether you want to comment. Part of the difficulty is that tenants who want to stay in a property want to build a good long-term relationship with their landlord and do not want the hassle of spending time and paying the cost of complaining. How do you resolve that situation? How do you make tenants more aware of their rights and support them to enforce those rights, given the social interaction between them and the landlord?

12:00  

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

How do you enforce the legislation? Councils have a responsibility to ensure that the landlord is a fit and proper person, that they are registered with the landlord registration system, that gas certification has taken place and that EPC rating has been done. How do you enforce that at the moment and how many enforcement cases do you have in an average year?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

I have a quick question for John Blackwood. John, you said that one in 10 of your members who took part in the survey was thinking about leaving the rented sector. However, when somebody leaves the sector, the property does not lie empty; it either gets sold back to the council, if it is an ex-council property, and re-enters the social rented sector at a much lower level of rent, as I have already indicated, or it gets sold to a private individual under the normal rules of supply and demand, whereby the more properties that are on the market, the lower the market price will be. Given that, according to National Records of Scotland, there are 120,000 more homes than households, where is the issue?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

We have been talking about how to improve the private landlord register. When someone sells a property, they have to produce a home report. Should something similar be in place for landlords when they rent out a property? We have talked about the data sets that would need to be collected, and people are concerned predominantly about the level of rent and the quality of the accommodation. Is there a need for something like that to gather the information?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

I will come on to enforcement in a minute.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

Thank you. As I said I would, I come to enforcement. We heard evidence last week—from the RentBetter research survey—that many people do not know their rights, despite their having a tenancy agreement. Some do not even know the type of tenancy that they are in. How do we improve the level of information for private tenants?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

Jennifer, you said that about 5 per cent of your landlords do not comply. There are two parts my question. First, what does Glasgow do about that and, secondly, how could we improve the enforcement regime?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 18 June 2024

Gordon MacDonald

John Blackwood, if I picked you up correctly, you said earlier that, in 2022, 8 per cent of people put the rent up and in 2023 that was 23 per cent.