It’s emerged that some £200,000 of public money was spent by politicians promoting a rent freeze.
A Freedom of Information request by the Scottish Daily Express has discovered
that £100,000 was spent by the Scottish Government – at that time run as an informal coalition between the Scottish National Party and the Green Party – on the Renters Rights campaign between September and November 2023.
In August 2023, a Tenants’ Rights Awareness Raising Campaign was launched to “increase young people’s awareness of their rights when renting a property in the private rented sector,” with this costing £18,800.
A further £80,000 was spent in March 2024 on a Renters Rights Campaign which “reminded private tenants they still have rights, even as the current rules after the temporary Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act 2022 protections end.”
Until recently the Scottish private rental sector has been subject to state-operated rent controls.
The Greens and SNP froze rents for tenants and banned most evictions in September 2022. This was eventually watered down in April 2024.
However, during the period of the apparent freeze Scottish renters endured the steepest annual rent growth across the UK, at an increase of 11.6%. In Glasgow and Edinburgh, rental costs rose faster than London.
This article is taken from Landlord Today