With the precentage of privately rented homes in Scotland having risen from 5% in 1999 to 11% today, the government has declared its committment to raising standards. If private renting is to be a reliable and trouble-free experience for tenants and become mainstream as it is in Europe, we do need to ensure that underperforming landlords raise their game. Here at Simply Let we believe that "rogue" landlords are few and far between and that most underperforming landlords are well intentioned but underinformed. We believe that legislation and coercion has its place in dealing with deliberately devious or malicious landlords but that for the majority of landlords improvement is best attained by ready access to information, guidance and support to help them do better. This larger, latter group needs recognition and encouragement rather than apparently being perceived as being on the verge of criminality, and their is a real risk that increasing statutory regulation will be counterproductive in driving them out of the sector while the rouges remain. What then for increased standards? We are encouraged therefore by the recognition of the Chairman of the Scottish Private Rented Sector Strategy Group, Professor Douglas Robertson, that "the vast majority of landlords would welcome some support".
Housing minister Keith Brown says ""The Scottish Government is committed to enabling effective action to help remove the small minority of rogue landlords from the private rented sector and to ensure that local authorities have the powers that they need to tackle this problem."
In Simply Let's view there is precious little evidence so far of that committment leading to any such landlords being identified or effectively dealt with, while those landlords who want to play fair and who have their tenants' interests at heart are made to jump through ever more hoops and to pay for the privilege of doing so. Simply Let supports legislation designed to raise PRS standards but only if it is effectively policed and seen by the "satisfactory" landlords to be effectively dealing with the rouges and delivering on its stated intentions.
So what is this latest consultation about?
It opens with the Group's vision of a "thriving and professional private rented sector that offers good quality homes and high management standards; inspires consumer confidence; and encourages growth and investment to further develop and improve the sector". However, if the Govermnment is to achieve that result ministers will need to listen to and be guided by objective views of people with experience in the sector, rather then seeking to score political points.
The consultation looks at three broad aims:
1. Growth and Investment: to increase overall housing supply and for more investment to develop and improve the existing sector;
2. Better quality: of property management, condition and energy efficiency,
to be enabled by smarter, more targeted regulation; and
3. More informed choices to support and encourage consumer driven improvement of the sector.
So, why not take this opportunity to have your own say and try to influence the legislation by participating in this consulation via the link below, which also contains some interesting backgound reading putting Scottish renting in context. The consultation runs until 10 July.
