Chamber and committees

I have looked at the numbers for the three deposit schemes. The figures were provided by the Scottish Association of Landlords. Mydeposits Scotland’s unclaimed deposits increased by 16 per cent over that three-year period, while SafeDeposits Scotland’s figure for the period was 69 per cent and Letting Protection Service Scotland’s figure increased by nearly 300 per cent. Do they all operate on the same basis, and do they all operate with regard to the same demographic?

A survey that was done back in 2017—which considered, I think, only one of the deposit schemes—showed that some international students forgot about their deposits, some thought that they would not get them back and some thought that it was too inconvenient to reclaim them. What can we do to address that? We are now seven years down the line, and the amount of money that is lying unclaimed has probably more than doubled since 2017.

Before I ask about that, I need Tony Cain to clarify a wee point. In answer to Willie Coffey’s question about rent controls and how they operate in other countries, you said that there was a level of imbalance in the Scottish housing markets. What did you mean by that, and what is the nature of the imbalance?

Yes, and there are 140,000 more homes than households in Scotland.

No.

Thanks very much. We could talk about this all day.

I accept what you are saying about the tenant-landlord relationship imbalance and that we need to address that. I hope that the bill goes some way towards doing that.

I am curious about the amount of social housing. When you compare the amount of social housing in Scotland with the amount in European Union or OECD countries, we are in line with Austria. We have 632,000 units of social housing stock. The Netherlands is the only other country that has a higher proportion of such stock. If all the other countries, whose social housing stock is below 10 per cent of the total housing stock, have managed to bring in rent controls, why is it difficult for Scotland to do that?

On personalisation of homes, I will come to Callum Chomczuk first. In your submission, you have more or less said that you are generally supportive of the proposals to allow more personalisation of homes by tenants but that the guidance should be further clarified. What needs to be in that guidance?

I am glad that you mentioned the proposed increase in deposits for those who want to personalise their home, but surely there is a balance in there somewhere. If somebody has a sense of ownership because they have been able to personalise their home, they are likely to be a longer-term tenant and, therefore, a landlord is guaranteed their rent. However, some landlord organisations have suggested that higher deposits should be part of the consent process of allowing alterations, or that there should be a condition that tenants must reinstate the property to its original condition when they are giving up the let. What do you think about that?

Yes, absolutely.

Yes, I appreciate that.