Chamber and committees

Would you like to give a view on the ethics of either approach?

Apologies, convener—I am just finding my question.

It has been estimated that about 30,000 children in Scotland are in poverty as a direct result of the cost of privately rented housing. At stage 2 of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill last week, in response to my calls for immediate action to freeze rent, the Deputy First Minister said:

“Obviously, the Government will seek to take whatever action we can in the short term.”—[Official Report, COVID-19 Recovery Committee, 9 June 2022; c 96.]

Will the Scottish Government commit today to working with me ahead of stage 3 to strengthen amendments that provide for an emergency rent freeze?

I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests.

Scottish Ambulance Service workers play a vital role in supporting the delivery of patient care in our A and E departments, but Unite the union’s recent survey of those workers reveals that those departments are increasingly understaffed, that the staff are working longer shifts and facing greater abuse, and that many workers are contemplating leaving the Ambulance Service altogether. Will the Scottish Government begin immediate negotiations with Unite the union to explore the formal recognition of the Ambulance Service as an emergency service, with workers being employed on similar terms to those in the police and fire services?

I thank Alasdair Allan for lodging his important motion for debate.

Land ownership remains one of the greatest injustices that we face in Scotland, because the ownership of Scotland’s land remains heavily concentrated in the hands of a wealthy few at the expense of communities. As Alasdair Allan and Ruth Maguire have so poignantly put it, those communities have a moral and cultural case for ownership of that land. That could not be seen more clearly than on Great Bernera—after all, the local community there has found its aspiration to purchase land frustrated by Scotland’s inadequate land laws.

Despite residents seeking a sustainable and prosperous future through community land ownership, progress continues to be delayed by a lack of co-operation from the island’s absentee landlord. In the meantime, the same landlord continues to exploit what should be the community’s land for his own gain by demanding significant payments from local crofters.

Great Bernera is the prime example of what happens when Scotland’s land laws fail to secure the public interest. That is what happens when a disinterested landowner is able to stifle the needs and aspirations of a local community. The truth is that landowners can get away with that because Scotland’s land laws favour their interests over those of local communities.

Even after 20 years of devolution, our land laws lag far behind those of other European countries when it comes to protecting the public interest. In Scotland, it is left to communities with few resources to try to exercise complex legal rights in the face of a landowner that seeks to frustrate their ambitions and, as things stand, the Scottish Government has no right to formally ask whether a landowner is acting in or against the public interest.

That is why we urgently need radical and progressive reform of our land laws. Ministers must be given the powers to intervene and to ask the public interest questions that need to be asked. They must also be able to require the compulsory sale of land when the public interest demands it.

Although the Scottish Government’s commitment to introduce a land reform bill is welcome, I am worried that it will fail to deliver the radical change that is needed. That is why I will introduce a land justice bill later this year. I am sure that the minister will remind us today that landowners have property rights. My bill will respect that, but it will not hide behind the timid interpretations of what those property rights might mean that are, I fear, likely to emanate from Government lawyers.

Powers are not just needed when land is at the point of changing hands; they are also needed when the landed class—often an absentee landlord—frustrates the legitimate interests of the people. That is what I will propose through my land justice bill so that the people of Great Bernera and other communities can have their interests advanced far more easily than at present.

I hope that my fears about the Scottish Government’s land reform bill will prove to be unfounded. It will have my support if it delivers the truly bold and radical change that is needed. However, Parliament deserves to have an opportunity to consider truly progressive land laws, and I will make sure that it has that opportunity through my land justice bill.

I thank the committee members for their work on the bill so far, and I thank the convener for giving me the opportunity to speak to amendments 66 and 68.

We all recognise that the private rented sector is continuing to grow in Scotland; it now encompasses more than 15 per cent of all households. Those households are now under increasing financial pressure due to above-inflation rent rises. In the past year alone, average monthly rents in Scotland have increased by more than 8 per cent, and that was before the current cost of living crisis and double-digit inflation hit.

As members know from contact from their constituents, the impact of rent costs, coupled with the other financial pressures that are caused by the cost of living crisis, is taking its toll on tenants.

Scotland’s tenants union, Living Rent, has been gathering testimony from tenants about how rent increases are impacting on them, and I will share some of those testimonies with the committee. The first quotation is:

“My landlord increased my rent by £300 with no reason given. We can’t afford to stay and will have to move out.”

Another testimony reads:

“The landlord increased the rent by £100 a month. He said he looked at the average rents for the street and decided he could raise it to £900. It’s had a very big impact on my financial situation, but I feel I cannot afford to move.”

The final testimony that I will share with the committee today reads:

“Our landlord increased our rent by £150 to £850. To explain, he said that he ‘could not be expected to stand still while the market moves on.’ We had to move to a place that doesn’t suit our requirements, as my wife is pregnant and the new flat is very old, has dirty and nicotine-saturated carpets, and is on the top floor.”

That is just a small sample of the testimonies that were submitted to Living Rent. I have more submissions here, if any member would like a copy.

I want to take what the Scottish Government says in good faith. By its own admission, rent pressure zones have not been successful in tackling rip-off rent hikes. I am pleased that, thanks to campaigning by Living Rent members, the Scottish Government has committed to introducing rent controls by 2026. That is welcome progress, but allowing a lead time of up to four years is causing a short-term incentive for landlords to increase their rents prior to rent controls being introduced.

Tenants cannot afford another four years of hikes. That is why I have repeatedly raised in Parliament the proposal that there be an emergency rent freeze. Although the First Minister said that, as a matter of good faith, she will undertake to explore any suggestion that is made in the chamber, the subsequent response that I received from the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights did not even address the idea of an emergency rent freeze.

I have lodged amendments 66 and 68 at stage 2 of the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill because rents are rising right now, and renters need urgent action right now.

Amendments 66 and 68 would require Scottish ministers to produce, within three months of the bill receiving royal assent, a plan to introduce an emergency rent freeze for all tenancies in Scotland. The rent freeze would have to remain in place until Scottish ministers bring forward their promised legislation in relation to rent control measures.

I hope that the cabinet secretary will engage constructively with amendments 66 and 68, and recognise the importance of standing up for tenants as part of our Covid-19 recovery, because we cannot allow four more years of rent hikes. I also hope that members of the committee will put their constituents first by supporting amendments 66 and 68.

Today, we have the power to legislate in the interests of tenants, and there is no excuse not to do so. Amendments 66 and 68 enjoy the support of tenants, through Scotland’s tenants union, Living Rent, and of workers in every sector, through the Scottish Trades Union Congress.

Let us show people which side we are on and in whose interests we are working by introducing the rent freeze that we so desperately need.

I move amendment 66.

I understand from the cabinet secretary’s comments that the Government supports the principle of controlling rents in Scotland. I am grateful to him for outlining the ways in which amendment 66 could be improved. On that basis, I am happy to seek to withdraw it and to discuss the matter with his office to improve it and bring an amendment back at stage 3.

Amendment 66, by agreement, withdrawn.

I am a member of tenants unions Acorn and Living Rent.

If you had an issue with foxes, for example, would you try other steps before shooting?

Has having a lethal method as the last resort impeded your ability to maintain and improve biodiversity and protect livestock, where necessary?