Scotland’s housing emergency will worsen without rent controls – Green Party

Scotland’s housing emergency will worsen in 2025 without rent controls, the Green Party says.

Along with ‘robust’ rent controls, the Greens also demanded last month that tenants should be protected ‘permanently’ from eviction in the winter months.

Also, rent controls would protect tenants from ‘skyrocketing rents’.

The party says that homes are ‘not for profiteering’ and more effort must be made to bring empty homes back into use.

Housing emergency getting worse

Green MSP Maggie Chapman said: “If real rent control measures are not put in place, I am worried that we will see the housing emergency getting even worse, with tenants forced out of their homes.

“There must be justice for renters who face insecure tenancies due to soaring costs and are being forced to shoulder the financial burden so their landlords can profit.”

She adds: “The government’s current proposals for this bill would enshrine perpetual rent increases into law and undermine local authorities’ ability to protect tenants by preventing them from bringing rents down.”

Rent controls must be enforced

Ms Chapman says that rent controls are fundamental to ‘building a fairer and better housing system’ for Scots – and controls must be enforced this year.

The Greens point to ‘eye-watering rent’ rises and an average rent for a one-bedroom property reaching £710 per month.

A two-bedroom home costs around £893 per month and the Scottish Government must ‘bring forward as robust a Housing Bill as possible this year’.

Homes should not be for profiteering

Ms Chapman said: “Homes should be for living in, not for profiteering. They are not luxurious, nice to have extras in life.

“They are necessary, vital spaces. Everyone has the right to have access to a warm, safe, secure, affordable place to call home whether they own or rent the property.”

She added: “When this Housing Bill was introduced it promised protection for tenants, redefining housing as a human right.

“It gave hope to many struggling while relying on the private rented sector for a place to call home here in Scotland.

“This must be the year that we begin to repair our broken housing system.”