Shelter Scotland's response to the Scottish Government's consultation on a new private tenancy

Shelter Scotland's response to the Scottish Government's consultation on a new private tenancy.

– Shelter Scotland welcomes the Scottish Government's intention to introduce a new tenancy to Scotland's private rented sector.

– Increasing security of tenure should be front and centre of the Scottish Government's reform and Shelter Scotland strongly agrees with the proposal to exclude the 'no fault' route for possession from the new tenancy.

– To provide for a simple and easily understood tenancy framework for both landlords and tenants the new tenancy should be a statutory tenancy.

– There should be an element of discretion in the grounds for possession which relate to rent arrears, antisocial behaviour and other breaches of the tenancy agreement. This is to protect tenants from being evicted for trivial matters and to allow for a defence where arrears relate to housing benefit administration errors.

– Private rents should be reasonable and predictable. Initial rents should be set by the local market, mid-tenancy rent increases should be limited to no more than one per year and they should be subject to an upper limit in line with an inflationary index.

– To provide low income households with an affordable housing option the Scottish Government should commit to build at least 10,000 socially rented homes per year.