Our members wrote for Bella Caledonia about the background to our manifesto's demands: "Let’s remind ourselves, since we got our parliament back, Scotland demolished 66,000 public homes, and sold off nearly half a million more through right to buy, ultimately leading to the takeover of our public housing in places by rapacious private landlords. We can stop this. We must stop this. Poverty and despair is rising, but we still have opportunity to change this. The only force that ever changed anything is organised people."Read the entire article here. Continue reading

Living Rent is hiring! Join our expanding team of organisers to fight for housing that works for people. After a full-on year, we have seen the importance of people coming together and fighting for their rights. As Living Rent grows and expands, so have our member defence teams and we are excited to welcome on board another member defence coordinator, to support member defence teams in Edinburgh and across the East Coast to fight back for their rights. This is a fixed 12 months full time contract at Living Wage.     Continue reading

Across our branches, one issues that keeps coming up is the poor standard of repairs across social and public housing. Tenants are made to live in house unfit for occupation: ongoing damp, black mould, leaks and recurring poor standards of repairs leave tenants facing enormous heating bills, health issues from the damp and mould as well as stress of having to live in such conditions. Local member defence teams support tenants to fight for individual repairs, however we know that broader structural changes are needed too. Continue reading

Scotland’s tenants’ union calls for “proper rent controls to protect Scotland’s tenants” Living Rent, Scotland’s tenants’ union, has welcomed proposals to limit rent increases in private rented homes but cautioned that new measures need to go far enough in order to properly protect tenants. The proposed Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill, would cap annual rent increases to the “Consumer Price Index plus 1%” and allow private tenants to request a Rent Officer to determine a “fair open market rent” if they felt they were being overcharged. Responding to the consultation on the bill, Living Rent supported both measures but cautioned that the proposed limit on rent increases is too high. It adds that a one-size-fits-all approach will not be able to take into account local conditions, and called for local authorities to be able to set lower limits in their areas Continue reading

Living Rent Pollokshields and Shawlands branch statement    Continue reading

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Victory in Shawlands for Cally & Gary!   Continue reading

Scotland needs homes. End housing insecurity. Scotland has a shortage of homes. With social housing sold off to buy to let landlords, vast swathes of it destroyed over the past few decades and with the rest hidden behind unaccountable housing associations, our homes have become a precarious and uncertain environment. Continue reading

It's been a busy month for our Knightswood/Anniesland members! Read on and find out what they're doing, and how you can join them in building a tenant and community union in G13.  Continue reading

Living Rent Union members in the Muirhouse branch have published their 4th issue of 'The Six Blocks' documenting their struggles, concerns, and successes in their ongoing fight against Edinburgh Council for better public housing conditions. Access the fourth issue of this newsletter here. Continue reading