Greens housing spokesperson Andy Wightman MSP blasted SNP and Tory members who yesterday (29 Nov) voted down his calls for a legal review to protect private tenants, following a Scottish Parliament debate on homelessness this afternoon.
Andy Wightman MSP said:
“There’s cross-party commitment to ending homelessness and Greens welcome the publication of the Government’s new action plan, but we’ll continue to argue that as well as challenging the social and economic causes of homelessness we need to tackle market and legal failures too.
“The law, as it currently stands, allows tenants to be evicted on eighteen statutory grounds, which include landlords selling up at short notice, going bust, or converting a residential tenancy to a short-term let. That falls well short of delivering on any sense of housing as a human right.
“We must also acknowledge the pressing need for proper rent controls. Private rents in Lothian have risen at more than twice the rate of inflation over the last eight years, forcing people into homelessness. Unless it addresses the vulnerability of tenants to rent rises and unilateral actions by private landlords, the Government risks undermining its own new action plan.”