End of Right to Buy scheme supported by Committee

The right to buy social rented houses in Scotland should be completely abolished, according to a report from the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee. The conclusion is part of the Committee’s stage 1 report on the Housing (Scotland) Bill that ends the right to buy social housing.

The right to buy social rented houses in Scotland should be completely abolished, according to a report from the Infrastructure and Capital Investment Committee. The conclusion is part of the Committee’s stage 1 report on the Housing (Scotland) Bill that ends the right to buy social housing.

Speaking of the recommendation, Committee Convener Maureen Watt MSP said:

“The majority of the Committee agrees that social housing should no longer be available for tenants to buy. We heard, and agreed with, strong evidence that the policy has had its day and that ending the right to buy will help stop affordable rented housing being lost from the social housing sector.

“Having taken that decision, we think the proposed three year timescale to abolish right to buy is too long. We feel a notice period of one year is adequate to allow people who have a right to buy to decide if this is the right option for them.”

As well as proposing the abolition of ‘right to buy’, the Bill makes a variety of changes relating to the social and private sector housing sectors which the Committee supports. These include improvements to the allocations process and to the tools available to help landlords deal with antisocial behaviour in the social sector; the introduction of a registration scheme for letting agents; the transfer of civil cases relating to the private rented sector from the sheriff court to the First-tier Tribunal; and a new licensing scheme for the owners of mobile homes sites with permanent residents.

Within the report, the Committee also makes recommendations about how the Bill could be improved if it continues into the next stage of Parliamentary scrutiny.

For the rented sector, the Committee is recommending that all private rented accommodation has:

• Mandatory five yearly checks carried out of the electrics in a property by a registered electrician.
• Provision of mains smoke alarms on a mandatory basis.
• Installation of carbon monoxide alarms on a mandatory basis.

The Bill also seeks to amend the Tenements Act, allowing local authorities to support owners in tenement properties to progress repairs and maintenance in cases where the majority of owners support the work but a minority of owners are unwilling or unable to pay their share.

The Bill also gives local authorities powers to report poor standards in rented properties to the private rented housing panel rather than leaving this to tenants to report.

Committee Convener Maureen Watt MSP said:

“There is much in this Bill that the Committee supports and believes will help those who rent across the different sectors. However, we have also put forward recommendations to Parliament to further improve the bill, should Parliament agree with us that it should continue to progress. For example, our recommendations on mandatory mains smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms we believe, would greatly improve safety for all tenants in private rented housing.”

Also covered within the report are the following Committee recommendations:

• Full monitoring of the provision that allows landlords to take age into consideration when allocating social housing should be undertaken to ensure discrimination is not taking place.
• The Scottish Government should take an active role in identifying letting agents that are not registered, particularly since it is not clear how many letting agents operate in Scotland.
• The Fit and Proper Person test for park home owners should be a register shared across local authorities in Scotland to ensure non-compliant owners do not simply move to another authority.

Whilst the Committee has noted that some stakeholders, particularly local authorities, supported the idea of ‘initial / probationary tenancies’ it is of the view that there is no clear indication that it would be appropriate to introduce this at this time.

With regards to First-tier Tribunals, the Committee supports the Scottish Government’s commitment to monitoring progress of the private rented sector tribunal and the impact of court reform in order to decide whether further changes should be made for social rented sector cases.

Background

The Housing (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 21 November 2013. It seeks to make a range of provisions relating to housing in Scotland, including the abolition of the right to buy social houses, the management of social housing and the operation of the private rented sector, regulation of letting agents, the licensing of sites for mobile homes and private house conditions.