The size of the private rented sector in Scotland has tripled since the advent of devolution 20 years ago.
However, a new report by think tank Common Weal does not conclude this is a good thing, slamming the sector for its “appalling” record.
It wants to see a reversal of the privatisation of Scotland’s rental sector.
The report, Alienated, insecure and Unaffordable: Living in Scotland’s Private Rented Sector, calls for increased regulation of the private rented sector, including rent controls.
It is also calling for more social housing, saying that 40,000 people living in the private rented sector (11% of the total) currently have their names on a social housing waiting list.
Of that number, some 5,000 have been on a waiting list for over a decade.
The report’s author Ben Wray said that since devolution “intolerable circumstances [have been created] for many tenants in the private rented sector, who sadly have housing conditions significantly worse than social housing”.
http://allofusfirst.org/tasks/render/file/?fileID=53AAE957-F4BA-7A4D-6618C23EB17AC3D9
Comments (4)
After working in the industry for almost 30 years I tend to view these type of reports with disdain.
Most seem to be written by someone just a few years out of university who is full of theory and no practical experience.
I have no idea how it works in Scotland – but where my porftolio is, rent controls won’t work – it will just bring standards of property down and those landlords who don’t care will care even less while those good landlords will struggle to make it work and leave.
So then you end up with even less property, poor landlording standards and higher rents.
BUILD. MORE. HOUSES.
It’s crazy that it’s not this obvious.
You are of course correct. The problem is that in general terms councils do not generally build social housing so they can’t catch up with demand. Our council asset strip where they can and rely on Housing Associations and planning gain to provide social housing. So whislt they deflect anger on the PRS they do nothing or very little to solve their own problems. This particularly applies where they have sold their old housing stock.
No doubt there will soon be an announcement that Scotland is to be twinned with Russia and China.