In March the Housing (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament. In its current form, if the bill passes it would allow rents to be controlled in designated Rent Control Areas, potentially freezing rent increases entirely.

Such controls are needed to prevent the cost of renting getting higher and higher - as it has been in Aberdeen over the last year - while the quality of rented housing remains the same or deteriorates, with issues such as poor insulation, damp, mould and repairs that never get done blighting rented housing in Aberdeen.

The bill is a good start to addressing the country’s out of control renting costs but it certainly has issues, which is why Living Rent responded to the government’s consultation calling for tougher controls. 

How did our local council in Aberdeen respond to the consultation? With the same old points from the landlord lobby. “Anecdotally, Aberdeen City Council are aware of landlords who have recently, or are currently leaving the sector due to the recent legislative changes” - the Council clearly weren’t interested in anecdotes from tenants.

Handily the data showing this isn’t available, but they do try and use some figures which actually show the number of rental properties increasing in the last few years - despite tenant protections which were imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic - to back up the concerns of their landlord friends. 

Apparently it’s landlords who are struggling in the cost of living crisis, and they need all the help they can get or they might need to sell off one of their multiple properties. The fact is that landlords effectively get money for nothing even when rents are low.