‘Eyebrows will be raised’ FM faces questions as parents’ eight rental homes are undeclared
Despite speaking about private landlords, rent caps and eviction procedures at Holyrood, FM Yousaf only lists a single rental property owned by his wife in register of ministerial interests
HUMZA Yousaf is facing questions about why he hasn’t publicly declared his family’s £1.3 million rental property empire in his register of ministerial interests.
The First Minister lists a single rental property in Dundee owned by his wife, Nadia El-Nakla.
However, he has not included the eight rental properties in Glasgow owned by his parents and their accountancy firm, Yousaf & Co Ltd.
He has also spoken about private landlords, rent caps and eviction procedures in Parliament without orally declaring any interest.
The Scottish Government said Mr Yousaf had only declared his wife’s rental flat as he could be seen as a “direct beneficiary” of it.
However, the Scottish Tories said the First Minister needed to be “fully transparent”.
There is no suggeston of any wrongdoing by Mr Yousaf’s parents.
MSPs must declare their own financial holdings, such as rental properties, in a Holyrood register.
But ministers are held to a higher standard and also complete a second, more detailed, register overseen by the Scottish Government’s top official, the Permanent Secretary.
The Scottish Ministerial Code states that it is “the personal responsibility of each minister to decide whether and what action is needed to avoid a conflict or the perception of a conflict, taking account of advice received from the Permanent Secretary”.
Declarations should “cover interests of the minister’s spouse or partner, and close family which might be thought to give rise to a conflict”.
Immediate family includes “parents, siblings or children” where an interest “might be thought to give rise to an actual or perceived conflict”.
The code says: “Additional care is taken in considering which interests held by ministers’ family members should be included in the list so as to avoid excessive and unreasonable intrusion into their lives.
“It is important to recognise the right of these individuals to a degree of privacy over their affairs and also to avoid compromising their ability to continue in gainful trade and/or employment.
“Accordingly, judgments are made about which interests are directly and significantly relevant and should therefore be included in the list.”
No interests
DURING the 2016/21 Parliament, when he was transport minister and justice secretary, Mr Yousaf did not declare any family interests in the ministerial register.
After he became health secretary in 2021, he declared that his sister was a practising pharmacist and three cousins were dentists in Scotland, two of whom were practice owners.
In his current entry, the First Minister declares that his wife is an SNP councillor in Dundee, is a therapist, and that she “owns a rental property in Dundee”, indicating the property is considered directly and significantly relevant.
The property in this case is a flat bought for £82,000 in 2021.
However, Mr Yousaf has not included the rental properties owned by his parents, Muzaffar and Shaaista, or the accountancy firm in which they are the sole directors and shareholders.
He has also spoken about landlords, rents and evictions at Holyrood without referring to them.
For instance, in January, he announced that the Scottish Government’s forthcoming Housing Bill would “set out proposals for longer-term reform of the rental sector”.
He told MSPs at FMQs: “We are committed to working not just with tenants, which is crucial, but with responsible landlords and other key stakeholders.”
According to public records, Yousaf & Co Ltd owns six flats across Glasgow – on Albert Drive, Albert Road, Brand Street, McCulloch Street, Marwick Street and Maxwell Road – which are currently listed as residential lets on the Scottish Landlord Register.
All are let via an agent, TPS Lets Ltd, of Glasgow.
The flats were bought for between £27,000 and £132,00 between 2001 and 2019. However, the Zoopla property website estimates they are now collectively worth around £850,000.
The First Minister’s father also owns a flat in his own name on Glenapp Street and the First Minister’s mother owns one on Melville Street.
Both appear as rental properties on the Scottish Landlord Register and are let through an agent.
The first was bought for £48,000 in 1999 and the second appears to have been inherited in 2008.
Together the two flats are now estimated by Zoopla to be worth around £475,000.
All together, the eight rental properties are worth an estimated £1.3m.
The property folio could potentially give rise to a perceived conflict of interest for Mr Yousaf.
In May 2020, he voted on and agreed to coronavirus legislation that changed the rules on tenancies and evictions while one of the family’s tenants was heading for eviction as they had been in arrears for more than three months.
Eviction order
RECORDS from Scotland’s Housing and Property Chamber show that a property agent acting for Mr Yousaf’s father applied to the tribunal for a payment order and an eviction order for the flat on Albert Road in Glasgow owned by Yousaf & Co Ltd.
The documentation said that the
Declarations should ‘cover interests of the minister’s spouse or partner, and close family which might be thought to give rise to a conflict’
tenant was due to pay £450 a month in rent, but had run up arrears of £4,950 to August 2020.
In February 2021, the tribunal agreed to make both the payment order and eviction order.
Scottish Tory housing spokesman Miles Briggs said: “Eyebrows will be raised at this omission from Humza Yousaf in relation to his parents’ extensive property interests.
“Given the public’s keen and growing interest in all things housing, the onus is on the First Minister to be fully transparent and ensure he is leading by example in relation to his register of interests.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The First Minister includes his wife’s rental property in his listed interests in line with his commitment to be transparent about interests to which he could be perceived to be a direct beneficiary.”
The spokesperson added: “This is not the case with the rental properties owned by the First Minister’s parents, therefore they are not required to be declared.”