Where next for the Housing (Scotland) Bill?

In this new blog, CIH Scotland’s national director Callum Chomczuk reflects on the next steps for the Housing (Scotland) Bill as the Stage 1 evidence comes to a close.

Yesterday was the penultimate evidence session at Stage 1 for the Housing (Scotland) Bill, with evidence from CIH Scotland, COSLA and ALACHO. Next week, the committee hears from the housing minister before making their Stage 1 report.

The response from the sector and from CIH to the Bill has been mixed throughout the process. Most, if not all, of the housing sector is supportive of proposals on pets and personalisation and a domestic abuse policy requirement on social landlords, and it is hard to think of any meaningful opposition - they are well received and should improve housing outcomes for tenants.

However, proposals on rent controls in particular remain contentious. The evidence from before the summer, and from CIH yesterday, was clear - we all want to see greater choice and affordability in the rented sector, but our concern is whether this policy will actually support affordability as opposed to incentivising annual increases, discouraging investment, catalysing landlords to leave the sector and increasing homeless presentations.

At a time of a national housing emergency, we remain concerned that this policy could exacerbate our housing and homelessness crisis. We discussed with the committee some mitigations that could be introduced to improve the Bill, including opt outs for MMR properties and guaranteed returns for the 'Build to Rent' sector, as well as concerns about rental data collection, timetables and the need for clarity over how we measure success of any legislation.

These would all be helpful amendments but the development of the Bill has started a bigger discussion about our approach to the private rented sector, how big (or small) it should be and how we ensure that there is genuine clarity for tenants and landlords about rights and responsibilities, as well as making clear that the success or failure of our housing system is predicated on providing enough social and affordable housing.

We wait with interest to see the response from the minister next week, the committee thereafter and the next steps in the development of the Bill.