THE Scottish Government has proposed plans to cap the amount rent can be increased to a maximum of 6% in control areas.
The Housing (Scotland) Bill was lodged earlier this year, and the legislation allows ministers to create rent control zones following a recommendation from local councils.
The bill initially did not set out the size of the caps, but Housing Minister Paul McLennan on Thursday said rents would not be able to rise higher than 1% above the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), up to a maximum of 6%.
The Scottish Government said the rent cap will support tenants and will help to tackle poverty, whilst providing appropriate protection for the property rights of landlords and supporting investment.
McLennan said the bill will include reforms which will help ensure people have a safe, secure, and affordable place to live.
He said: “This amendment responds directly to calls for greater certainty and will offer more clarity to tenants, landlords and those who invest in and develop rented homes.
“Setting out the cap in this way, with CPI as its basis, allows for a reflection of the costs of landlords to offering a property for rent, while offering protections to tenants in terms of limiting more significant rent increases.”
Caps will be in place between tenancies, as well as throughout, in the selected zones, but McLennan (below) said there will be exemptions to allow certain properties to avoid the caps.
A consultation will take place this spring on how exemptions should be applied, but the minister indicated in Holyrood that mid-market rent properties are one such option.
However, the Scottish Greens have condemned the proposal saying the SNP are betraying tenants with “watered down rent controls” by imposing above inflation rent hikes.
The Housing Bill was originally published by then Scottish Green Minister Patrick Harvie and followed an emergency rent freeze.
The Scottish Government's announcement comes just five months after MSPs declared a housing emergency.
Scottish Greens social justice spokesperson, Maggie Chapman (below), said stabilising rents at unaffordable levels is no use to anyone bar "profiteering landlords".
She said: “This is a shameful betrayal of tenants. It will impose above inflation rent hikes on households all over Scotland.
“Stabilising rents at unaffordable levels is no use to anyone, apart from profiteering landlords. If the SNP goes ahead with these disastrous plans they will be selling-out renters and entrenching a broken and unfair system.
She added: “This is yet another example of an SNP government that is shedding its progressive credentials. I urge them to rethink their proposals and work with us to deliver a Housing Bill that transforms housing in Scotland and gives tenants the security, stability and peace of mind that everyone deserves.
“Homes should be for living in, not for profiteering.”
Campaign group Living Rent welcomed the assertions the caps will apply in between tenancies, but also hit out at their size.
Its campaign chairwoman Ruth Gilbert said: “Setting a cap at above inflation – even by just 1% – will bake in above-inflation rent increases for tenants, and severely weakens the rent controls we so desperately need.
“We will continue to fight for rent controls that bring out of control rents down, not just limit future increases.”
