Glasgow Times

Bid to save legislatio­n on private rents after committee bins bill

- BY STEWART PATERSON

APETITION has been started to persuade the Scottish Government to adopt a Glasgow MSP’s bill on private rents. Pauline McNeill’s Fair Rents Bill was stopped on its way though the legislativ­e process by MSPs on the Local Government Committee.

Following a meeting in private they said that due to a heavy workload, it would not be able to take the legislatio­n through Parliament before the end of the session prior to the Holyrood election next year.

The decision angered the Glasgow Labour MSP and housing lawyer Mike Dailly, who had also worked on the bill with McNeill.

It was backed by Green MSP Andy Wightman and Labour MSP Sarah Boyack, but did not get enough support from the other members – Conservati­ve MSPs Jeremy Balfour and Graham Simpson and SNP MSPs James Dornan, Kenneth Gibson and Annabelle Ewing.

Scottish Labour has now launched its petition asking the Scottish Government to take up the bill and ensure it becomes law.

It would set a cap on rent increases in the private sector.

McNeill said: “It is hugely disappoint­ing that the SNP has lined up with the Tories to block the Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill from progressin­g further.

“But Nicola Sturgeon has another chance to show that she is on the side of hard-pressed renters.

“We are calling on the Scottish Government to adopt the Bill, as it has done with other legislatio­n proposed by Labour MSPs in the past, and ensure that it goes forward for debate.”

Scottish Government statistics show that in Greater Glasgow the average rent for a two-bedroom home in the private sector is £780.

The area had the highest Scottish increase in 2018-2019 where rents increased on average by 5.3%.

In the past 10 years, rents in Glasgow have risen by 38%, which is far higher than the comparable cumulative inflation increase of 21%.

Dailly, of the Govan Law Centre, said: “The Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill took the best part of two years to develop and was supported by 28 MSPs from four political parties when it was introduced.

“Yet it is understood that MSPs on a committee decided in private session to terminate it without any public explanatio­n.

“The year-on-year escalation of private rent increases is unsustaina­ble, especially in a Covid-19 world where tens of thousands of Scots have seen their incomes drop with redundancy and unemployme­nt looming for all too many.

“Scotland needs to talk about private rent affordabil­ity. Our Parliament needs to act to give vulnerable tenants some basic legal protection”.

 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Govan Law Centre’s Mike Dailly, right, worked with Glasgow Labour MSP Pauline McNeill on the legislatio­n
Govan Law Centre’s Mike Dailly, right, worked with Glasgow Labour MSP Pauline McNeill on the legislatio­n
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom