Rent and evictions freeze ‘irresponsible’ say Scottish landlords

Landlords in Scotland have attacked proposals to freeze rent and prevent evictions as “irresponsible”.

The Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) accused the ruling SNP and Greens of seeking “cheap political headlines” instead of solutions to help tenants.

A rent freeze and moratorium on evictions until the end of March next year are contained in the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Scotland Bill, which was being debated by the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

John Blackwood (main picture), CEO of the Scottish Association of Landlords, says: “With this bill, the SNP and Greens have put political rhetoric ahead of measures that would achieve real results in solving Scotland’s housing crisis.

“We know they will ram this bill through, but that will only result in poor law. We can already see it is full of holes, and may well be open to legal challenge, particularly around protection of private property and ownership.”

Selling up

Timothy Douglas (pictured), head of policy and campaigns at Propertymark, told the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee: “Propertymark’s member agents have already seen a decline in the number of homes available for rent because of rising costs levied on their landlords, and warned any form of rent control in the short and longer-term will mean more landlords selling up”.

The Scottish Parliament was due to vote yesterday on whether to treat the bill as an emergency measure. More information on the bill here