An activist group has issued a raft of demands for government clampdowns on landlords.
Living Rent, a Scottish activist group, has issued what it calls its “manifesto” for next month’s elections to the Scottish Parliament.
The many demands include banning landlords becoming elected representatives at local or national level.
It’s just one of many demands made in the section of the manifesto called ‘Universal Housing For Everyone’.
Those demands include:
- A ban on landlords serving as elected representatives, at local and national level;
- A government commitment in the next housing strategy to reduce the size of the Private Renter Sector (PRS) over the next parliamentary term;
- A moratorium on the building of new Build To Rent and purpose built student accommodation;
- Rent controls across every element of the private rental sector. Living Rent says: “We need a comprehensive system of rent controls which systematically reduces rents over time, inline [sic] with that of social rent. Rent controls must initially cover all tenures, including Build-to-Rent, Mid-Market and Purpose-Built Student Accommodation and be linked to the housing quality”;
- And an increase in the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) “to empower local authorities and housing associations to purchase private property from landlords.”
In a lengthy introduction to this section of the activists’ manifesto, they write: “Housing is a human right that must be met for us to live with dignity, comfort and safety.
“Under the current for-profit system, our right to a safe and warm home is not being met.
“Council housing was created as a mass alternative to the exploitative private rental market and slum housing.
“Following privatisation, social and council homes have become an after-thought for the government and stigmatised as a ‘last resort’ for tenants, when public housing was previously viewed as providing a service for the public good.
“What’s more, we have witnessed a dramatic decline in the quality and condition of social homes.
“We demand universal public housing, available to all, owned by the people as a public asset, and built to a liveable standard with the needs of tenants in mind.
“Currently both social and council housing fail to meet this standard.
‘In the short term we support the expansion of council and social housing, but we organise towards abolishing the private rented sector and win universal public housing.”
