What is the Housing (Scotland) Bill?
The Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament a year ago on 26 March 2024 with the intention to introduce a long-term system of rent controls in Scotland as well as strengthening tenant’s rights. You can view the full details here.
Where are we?
The Housing Bill has in excess of 700 amendments tabled in its current form and the list is still growing.
The Bill is currently at its Stage 2 where the lead committees consider and vote on the tabled amends. The Social Justice and Social Security Committee considered the provisions on homelessness included within the Bill over the period of 20 and 27 March. Currently, the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee is considering the rest of amends to the Bill including the rent control and student housing provisions. The Stage 2 process is expected to end by 29 May 2025.
Stage 2 Day 1: 6 May
In this section, the main amends that were passed by the committee were -
133/90- amendment tabled by Meghan Gallacher MSP to proportionately consider of the formation and impact of rent control areas in rural areas by the local authorities in their assessments.
278 – amendment tabled by the Housing Minister, to extend the deadline for local authorities to submit their first report by 31 May 2027, so the rent control areas will come into force after that.
51/52/53 - amendment tabled by Graham Simpson MSP to extend provisions of rent controls to student tenancies. This will also bring Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) within the scope of the Housing (Scotland) Bill.
206 – amendment tabled by Rachael Hamilton MSP to require the local authorities to define the boundary of rent control zones.
143/144/145/146 - amendment tabled by Meghan Gallacher MSP requiring the Minister to lay a statement before the Scottish Parliament on local authority’s recommendation to designate all or any part of the area of the local authority as a rent control area and the Scottish Parliament may, within two weeks by resolution agree or not.
Reaction from the industry
Since the announcement of rent controls extending to student housing/PBSA, we have received major reaction from all over UK and already sites paused for development pending the outcome of the Bill.
Stage 2 Day 2: 13 May (Updated 13 May, 6pm)
281- This amendment to remove section 9.3 of the Bill was passed by the committee. This subsection was in relation to mechanisms to calculate rent control which will be replaced by amendment 332 lodged the by the Minister with the principle of CPI + 1% approach, that is yet to be voted on.
147 – tabled by Edward Mountain MSP, this amendment has been voted by the committee to include the quality of properties and energy performance as a criterion for calculating the rent cap
282/283/284/285/286/ 287/288/289/290/291/292/293/294/295/296/297/299/300 - all amendments tabled by the Minister concerning modified rent control areas were passed by the whole committee.
207- amendment tabled by Rachael Hamilton MSP to ensure additional services such as water, gas or electricity are excluded in the term ‘payable rent’ - this is in order to capture accurate and comparable data and was passed by the committee.
107- was passed as well, which was tabled by Meghan Gallacher MSP supported by the Minister to leave out section 13 from the Bill. This section touched on exemptions which will anyway be introduced via secondary legislation. The majority of the committee was supportive of the concept of exemptions from the rent control regime for specified properties. The MSPs also sought clarity before Stage 3 on the detail of proposed exemptions to support new build supply of rental accommodation across a range of tenures, and we are pleased to see specific support for existing property exemptions under specified circumstances as well.
Stage 2 Day 3: 14 May (Updated 15 May, 11am)
311/ 312/ 313/ 314/ 315/316 tabled by the Minister and 151 by Edward Mountain MSP - were passed by the committee, these amendments were in relation to the landlord register and Edward Mountain sought to add state of repair and energy efficiency data to be collected as well.
317/318/319/320/321/322/323- tabled by the Minister were passed as well which looked to amend Scottish Minister’s powers and time interval for the landlord register.
324/325/328/329/330/331- tabled by the Minister was passed, which looked to replace amended text to section 16, section 17, section 18 and section 19 respectively from the Bill. These sections were in relation to request to information holder’s provisions, its publication and ‘exempt’ properties. The debate on this section saw cross party support for exemption for BTR and MMR properties but the Scottish Government will bring it in via consultation in secondary legislation.
332 – amendment tabled by Paul McLennan was passed (narrowly) with 4 in favour and 3 against. This amendment enables a ‘permitted rate’ rent cap of CPI + 1% up to a maximum of 6%.
Stage 2 Day 4: 20 May (Updated 20 May, 5pm)
Amendments Passed 220 / 335-361
Voting ended at 439.
Relates to:
- Repairs and Standards
- Information for Tenants
- Rent increase procedure
Details of Key Amendments Passed
220 – amendment tabled by Rachael Hamilton MSP was passed - this amendment means that if a landlord intends to raise the rent during the tenancy (even out-with a rent control area), they must provide a clear explanation for the increase within the terms of the tenancy agreement.
354 – amendment tabled by Paul McLennan was passed - this amendment makes sure that landlords of exempt properties don’t have to follow the new rent advertising rules, even if their property is inside a Rent Control Area.
355 - amendment tabled by Paul McLennan was passed – this amendment relates to the inclusion of rent increase information by requiring landlords to disclose whether a rent increase occurred within the 12 months prior to the property's advertisement. If an increase did occur, landlords must specify the date when the most recent increase took effect.
357 – amendment tabled by Paul McLennan was passed – this amendment mandates advertisements of properties within a rent control area to include a clear statement that rent may change in accordance with CPI before the start of a tenancy.
359 – amendment tabled by Paul McLennan was passed – this amendment sets out the criteria for a ‘relevant rent increase’. This means that rent increase may not automatically be allowed if the rent was higher than the previous tenancy, if the previous tenancy ended within the last year and if the landlord is the same as the previous tenancy.
360 – amendment tabled by Paul McLennan was passed – this amendment prevents a landlord from changing how they describe property when re-letting. This means that the description must align with previous tenancies and be compared based on property terms e.g, number of bedroom or whether its furnished.
Discussion on Repairs and Standards
The Committee strongly agreed that there must be a robust system in place to ensure that properties are properly maintained and that issues such as damp and mould are effectively addressed. It was emphasised that landlords have a duty to maintain their properties and address any health and safety concerns in a timely manner.
A key point of discussion was the need to align with England, where the Awaab’s Law requires landlords to fix dangerous damp and mould within set timescales and to address all emergency hazards.
In response, the Cabinet Secretary has notified their intention to release a consultation this calendar year on how best to address these concerns.
Stage 2 Day 5: 27 May (Updated on 29 May)
Dealing with evictions
Section 24, Section 25, Section 26, Section 27 and Section 28 of the Bill got passed by the committee.
In this section there was debate on the wider data collection issue and gaps on implementation criteria for evictions, which the Government has promised to work on over the summer, so no opposition amendments got moved by the members in this section.
Amendments passed - 369 which was in relation to payments for wrongful termination
Tenant’s right to keep a pet
Amendment passed in this section included: 370 that was tabled by the Minister.
Amendment number 26 tabled by Maggie Chapman MSP and amendments 168, 170, 171, 172, 180 and 181 tabled by Edward Mountain MSP were passed by the committee that look to mandate duties for Scottish Ministers to make provisions for regulations to provide a reasonable ground of refusal to keep a pet by landlords and more.
Tenant’s right to make changes to let property
Amendments 175, 176, 177, 178, 179,180 and 181 tabled by Edward Mountains MSP which sought to clarify the Category 1 and Category 2 changes by tenants and landlord requiring to provide reason for refusal of these changes.
Tenancy deposits and guarantors
Amendments 371, 372, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377 on unclaimed deposits tabled by the Minister were passed by the committee.
Joint tenancies
Amendment 378, 379, 380, 381, 382 by the Minister on minimum and maximum period of pre-notice to quit a joint tenancy was agreed by the committee.
Succession to tenancies
Amendments 383 and 384 tabled by the Minister were agreed by the committee on entitlement to inherit tenancy for partners, carers or other family members etc.
Mobile homes
Amendment 22 tabled by Murdo Fraser MSP was passed by the committee.
Social housing regulation
Amendment 458 tabled by Evelyn Tweed MSP was supported by the government and agreed on by the committee on reviews and appeals of decisions of the Scottish Housing Regulator.
Stage 2 Day 6: 3 June (Updated on 4 June)
387 agreed
388-92 en bloc agreed
543 agreed
193 agreed, 194 agreed
568 agreed
270 agreed
226 agreed
393,394 agreed
277 agreed
395 agreed
396-401 agreed en bloc
402 agreed
403, 404 agreed
405,406 agreed
230 agreed with SG support
What's next? (Updated 29 May)
The amendments passed at Stage 2 in the Bill will ultimately be confirmed, or not by the full Scottish Parliament at Stage 3. Following the developments in the day 2 debate, we think Stage 3 will happen after summer recess in September.
The Rest of the already debated amendments will receive their formal votes or approvals in the next Committee meetings currently expected on 29 May. The deadline for Stage 2 has been extended to Friday, 6 June.
*There have also been developments outside of the Committee debates in the form of correspondence published over the weekend (10 May) on LinkedIn by Willie Rennie MSP, between the Cabinet Secretary Shirley Anne Somerville MSP. This letter stated that the Scottish Government will legislate to introduce an amendment at Stage 3 for a 28-day notice period, subject to consultation of the specific circumstances under which this 28-day notice would be allowed. This proposal was consulted on late last year but there had been no indication it would form part of the Housing Bill – indeed the government has not yet published its analysis of that consultation.
It is our understanding that the 28-day notice duty is to be for specific circumstances and based on industry best practice. We have been asking the Government and officials for clarification on this and on Monday, 19 May, received a letter from the Cabinet Secretary, Shirley Anne-Sommerville providing a clarification on 28 day notice amendment. The amendment will provide for a Regulation making power but that the intention is to base the notice duty on specified grounds of illness, bereavement or where a student is moving to another university. The letter states this is based on feedback from providers in last year’s consultation. This will not be included in primary legislation but will come to force as regulations.
Consultation on exemptions from the Housing (Scotland) Bill
On the 23 April, a 12-week consultation was launched which is due to close on 18 July 2025. This includes:
- Exemptions for Build to Rent (BTR),
- Single Family Rental (SFR),
- Mid-Market Rent (MMR) sectors,
- Significant improvement to properties or landlords that have kept the rents below market rent over a period of time
- The issue of terminating joint tenancies is also included
These exemptions will be enacted via secondary legislation not in the primary Bill.
Please send your comments to us on spf@bpf.org.uk. You can view the full consultation here.
We encourage members to respond to this consultation individually as well to amplify industry voice.
