Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Some of the homes in Dundee are slums and will fail to meet new Govt standards’
private-rented sector is a real mixed bag, ranging from really good-quality stuff, which will easily meet the standards, to the slums like some of the stuff in Dundee city centre and the likes of Albert Street.
“I would guess that most — probably the vast majority — of the private sector housing won’t come anywhere close.
“There is no realistic way the private rented sector will get anywhere near this without huge public subsidy. Virtually none of the older tenement stock in Dundee will meet this standard unless it has been modernised very recently.
“The other big area of private lets are former right-to-buy council houses and, again, I suspect that most of this would fail.
“The cost of improving the standard of homes is also going to be huge. It costs AHA around £5,000 per flat to insulate and install new heating in a Victorian tenement flat to meet the standards.”
But one family living in Albert Street jumped to the area’s defence.
Full-time mum Claire Macpherson, who lives there with children Sophia, one; Aaron, four; Justin, 13; and Dylan, 14, said housing nearby was of good quality.
She said: “I wouldn’t live in a slum. I could live anywhere in the city, in a massive house somewhere else, but Albert Street is great — especially for the schools and nurseries.
“I totally disagree with those saying Albert Street is a slum — the people are lovely, and if there’s a problem with the flat the landlord sorts it out no problem.
“I think Mr Forbes has got a false sense of what people are like here. If he lived in some of the places and spoke to people, came into their homes, he would see.
“I wouldn’t have my kids living in a place they weren’t safe to be in.” Another resident hit out at the suggestion he lived in a slum, though added that conditions in his home “aren’t great — but I can’t afford anything else”.
John Blackwood, chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL), insisted the new guidelines would “drive rogue players out of the sector” but added: “We must also be realistic and acknowledge that in some circumstances these standards cannot be easily met without some kind of joined working with others.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said the standards would ensure people had access to “highquality, affordable and sustainable housing”.
A Dundee City Council spokeswoman said “positive progress” was being made in the private rental sector, adding: “Dundee City Council works with project managers Shelter Scotland, which secured three years of funding from the Oak Foundation.
“The aim is to improve standards in the private rented sector and in particular to target those landlords who are inexperienced or unaware of the range of legislation affecting the sector.
“In the first year alone 331 cases were dealt with, involving 600 hours of casework.”