Today, Living Rent and trade unions have said that the Scottish Government needs to introduce an immediate rent freeze covering all private and mid-market rented homes.
The open letter addressed to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing, Shirley Anne Somerville, states that if the government is serious about its commitments to social justice, tackling poverty, and responding to the national housing emergency it will introduce an immediate rent freeze across Scotland.
Dear Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice,
We, the undersigned, are writing to urge the Scottish Government to introduce an immediate rent freeze across Scotland.
In May 2024, the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency. Since then, the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 has given local authorities powers to introduce rent control areas. While we welcome the commitment to introduce rent controls in parts of the private rented sector, the measures do not come quickly enough nor go far enough to protect tenants from the worsening housing crisis.
Scotland's tenants need the Scottish Government to introduce an immediate rent freeze across all private and mid-market rented homes to ensure that people are protected from the ongoing cost of living crisis and are able to remain in their homes.
Tenants across Scotland have been in crisis for years. Between 2010 and the end of 2025, average private rents in Scotland have increased by 66% - 12% above inflation for the same period - with even steeper rises in many urban areas where reliance on the private rented sector is greatest (104% in Lothian, and 94% in Greater Glasgow). Rents have already reached unsustainable levels. Over 50% of tenants now spend more than a third of their income on housing, while many of those on the lowest incomes spend around half their wages on rent alone. At the same time, households continue to face rising food, energy and other essential living costs. Tenants simply cannot afford any further increase in the cost of keeping a roof over their heads.
The Scottish Government recognised this reality during the cost of living crisis when it introduced emergency rent protections in 2022, initially freezing rents and later capping increases. Those measures acknowledged that stabilising housing costs was one of the most effective ways to reduce financial hardship and prevent more people being pushed into poverty.
As matters stand, however, tenants face a significant gap before the new system can offer meaningful protection. Local authorities must assess, consult on and implement rent control areas before they can take effect, meaning many tenants are likely to face further unaffordable rent increases before the new framework is operational in 2027 or 2028. We urge the Scottish Government to introduce a rent freeze that remains in place until rent control areas are fully operational across Scotland, preventing the sharp rent increases seen both before and after previous emergency measures.
This crisis is not confined to the traditional private rented sector. Mid-market rent tenants are also experiencing excessive rent increases, with PLATFORM tenants in Edinburgh recently served with increases of up to 24%. Against a backdrop of stagnant wages and continuing cost of living pressures, increases of this scale are simply unaffordable. In practice, they amount to de facto eviction notices. Exempting mid-market rent tenancies from forthcoming rent control areas will leave thousands of tenants without meaningful protection and create an unjust two-tier system. Any immediate rent freeze must therefore apply equally to mid-market rent homes.
While we recognise that rent regulation alone will not resolve Scotland's housing emergency, allowing rents to continue rising unchecked will deepen poverty and inequality. It will place further pressure on already overstretched health, social care and education services, increase homelessness, and force more households into an increasingly unaffordable private rented sector. A housing system already characterised by an acute shortage of genuinely affordable social housing and growing dependence on unsuitable temporary accommodation cannot absorb further pressure. Stronger regulation of rents and sustained investment in social housing must go hand in hand.
The consequences extend well beyond housing policy. As wages stagnate and housing costs continue to rise, escalating rents are pushing more families and children into poverty. The Scottish Government has rightly committed itself to eradicating child poverty. With housing costs representing the largest outgoing for most households, preventing rents from spiralling further is one of the most immediate and effective actions the Government can take to help achieve that goal.
Our members are struggling to make ends meet. They cannot wait months or years for protections that have yet to materialise while rents continue to rise unchecked. If the Scottish Government is serious about its commitments to social justice, tackling poverty and responding to the national housing emergency, it must introduce an immediate rent freeze covering all private and mid-market rented homes. That freeze should remain in place until rent control areas are fully operational across Scotland.
We urge you to show the leadership this moment demands.
Yours sincerely,
Ruth Gilbert, Chair, Living Rent
Eilidh Keay, Political Officer, Living Rent
Roz Foyer, General Secretary, STUC
Susan Fitzgerald, Regional Secretary, Unite the Union
Lilian Macer, Regional Secretary, UNISON Scotland
Gordon Martin, Scotland Organiser, RMT Scotland
Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland Secretary
PCS Scotland
Andrea Bradley, EIS General Secretary
Craig Anderson, Scotland and Northern Ireland Official, CWU
Chris O’Donnell, UCU Scotland President
Justine Pédussel, NUS Scotland President
