Rented Sector Reform
As set out in this year’s Programme for Government, the First Minister reaffirmed our commitment to delivering a New Deal for Tenants by creating new tenants’ rights and powers for the introduction of a system of long term rent controls for the private rented sector. To support that, and to continue our engagement with stakeholders across landlord, tenant and investor groups, we have launched an engagement questionnaire seeking to ask landlords and tenants a range of questions on our proposed reforms to the rented sector.
The questionnaire can be accessed via Citizen Space, the Scottish Government’s consultation platform, and will be open to responses for 4 weeks, closing on Friday 27 October. You can access it here:
https://consult.gov.scot/better-homes-division/rented-sector-reform-landlord-and-tenant
A supporting paper, providing more detail on our current proposals for a New Deal for Tenants, has been published to help landlords and tenants who wish to respond to the questionnaire.
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022
The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 came into force in October 2022 and introduced extra protections for tenants. The Act aims to protect tenants by temporarily:
- restricting private sector landlords from increasing the amount of rent they can charge private sector tenants;
- placing certain restrictions on enforcement of evictions from residential tenancies in both the private and social rented sectors; and
- balancing these restrictions with safeguards for those private landlords who may be facing particular cost pressures or financial hardship
The rent cap applies to most tenants in the private rented sector.
The rent cap was able to be expired in the social sector following a voluntary agreement being reached on rent setting with the sector.
The rent cap was able to be suspended in the purpose built student accommodation sector due to evidence that the rent setting process for the academic year meant that the rent cap had minimal impact.
The evictions protections continue to apply across all sectors.
The Scottish Parliament has approved a final six month extension of the Act, meaning that the following measures will be in place until 31 March 2024 at the latest:
most in-tenancy private sector rent increases will continue to be capped at 3% for any 12-month period;
- enforcement of evictions will continue to be paused for six months for most tenants, except in a number of specified circumstances; and
- private sector landlords who may be facing particular cost pressures or financial hardship can apply for approval to increase rent by up to 6% to help cover certain increases in costs in a specified time period where these costs can be evidenced
You can view more information on the measures here:
The Scottish Housing Regulator is consulting on proposals for how it regulates social housing in Scotland. It is inviting tenants, landlords and others with an interest in its work to give their views by 15 December.
In its proposals, the Regulator explains how it will continue to safeguard and promote the interests of current and future tenants, people who are homeless and others who use social landlords’ services.
A key proposal would see the Regulator introduce a new provision to its statutory guidance to allow the Regulator to require landlords to provide explicit assurance in the Annual Assurance Statement (AAS) on a specific issue or issues.
The Regulator also proposes changes to strengthen the emphasis in its Regulatory Framework on social landlords listening to tenants and service users, to make it clearer when a social landlord is non-compliant, and to initiate a comprehensive review of the Annual Return on the Charter which it will consult on next year.
George Walker, the Regulator’s Chair, said “Our proposals reflect the feedback from stakeholders on our discussion paper from earlier this year. Since then we’ve continued to discuss our ideas at meetings and events, to develop and test our thinking.
“Overall, stakeholders have told us that in general the current Regulatory Framework works well and remains relevant and appropriate. We’ve also seen a clear appetite from those involved in social housing for a period of stability and for changes to be kept to a minimum. There was also general support from tenants, landlords, investors and representative bodies for the approach that we set out in the discussion paper and for the changes we proposed.
“Thank you to everyone who has shared their views so far. This has been a really constructive discussion, and your feedback has been invaluable. The draft Regulatory Framework and guidance we are now proposing have been shaped by your feedback, and will continue to be informed by your responses to this consultation.”
The Regulator will use the consultation feedback to develop its final Regulatory Framework and guidance which it will publish in February 2024 and implement on 1 April 2024.
Colin Stewart, a spokesperson for the Regional Networks said our members supported the Housing to 2040 vision when it was published, it was and still remains an admirable long-term plan.
However, the housing landscape like so much else has changed drastically over the last few years and the priority must be to respond to the current housing emergency we face. At present the emphasis and funding must go to providing many more new homes. That must be the focus along with ensuring standards of our existing homes is met.
To do this in these difficult economic times will be hugely challenging and is made even more difficult by the reduction in the affordable housing budget. Tenants cannot be expected to fund this work through large rent increases, the funding must come on a national basis from government.
As tenants, we welcome the aspiration of the Scottish Housing Net Zero Standard for Scotland but consider that in the current context, it is imperative to take a measured approach to this which takes account of the challenges we are facing across the piece and allow for a more cohesive strategy to be put in place for the social housing sector to address the challenges we face.
The documents have been sent out for the upcoming AGM on Saturday 1st June 2024.
You can download the documents from this page.
The Scottish Housing Regulator has today set out its plans to carry out a comprehensive review of the Annual Return on Charter (ARC) during 2024/25.
To support this review, the Regulator has established advisory groups to work with it to consider the current ARC indicators and help it to develop appropriate and meaningful indicators on tenant and resident safety, including new indicators on damp and mould.
The advisory groups will include relevant experts and people from the social housing sector and the first meeting of these groups will take place at the start of May 2024.
The Regulator will use the feedback it received about the ARC indicators during its recent framework review. It also hopes to include the development of appropriate indicators for the Social Housing Net Zero Standard following the conclusion of the Scottish Government’s consultation on the proposed Standard.
The Regulator will consult formally on the revised ARC indicators later this year. The new ARC will take place for collection year 2025/26, and landlords will make the first return under the new indicators in May 2026. The existing ARC will continue until then.
Helen Shaw, Director of Regulation said:
“The ARC allows landlords to report on how well they are delivering services to their tenants. The membership of the advisory groups is drawn from across the sector, including relevant experts. We look forward to working with the advisory groups as we review the current indicators. We will also ensure that we involve tenants and other service users as we develop the proposed new indicators to ensure the information we collect reflects what is important to them.”