Rent Freeze Bill passes stage 2 after over 100 attempted revisions

Scottish Greens MSP and tenants' rights minister Patrick Harvie, who is sponsoring the legislation in Holyrood, said that the Government could not support certain revisions that “weakened or undermined” protections for tenants or safeguards.

The emergency legislation is moving through the Scottish Parliament at an accelerated pace, with the first stage one debate concluded on Tuesday, the second stage on Wednesday, and the final stage to be concluded on Thursday.

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During stage two proceedings, Scottish Tory, Scottish Labour and LibDem MSPs lodged 101 separate amendments trying to make numerous changes to the legislation. Proceedings didn’t wrap up until after 8.15pm.

The Tories had one amendment rejected from the debate because it would have changed the purpose of the bill, and the majority of opposition revisions were later withdrawn or voted down.

An amendment from Tory MSP Miles Briggs to include a provision for demolition of or substantial work on the property in eviction ban rules passed with government support, but the Tories' other attempts to change the legislation were not as successful.

Tory MSP Stephen Kerr moved an amendment to ensure that students could be evicted from university halls if they “pose a risk to others” or engage in anti-social behaviour. The amendment was voted down.

Kerr told the chamber: “I’m afraid that once again we’re making bad law by the way that we’re rushing this through all of the stages of legislation today and I’m astonished that so few members in this place seem to read the business pages of any decent newspapers or they could understand that interest rates are not only rising here but across the entire advanced global economy.”

Labour’s amendments looked to move the start date of the legislation from September 6 and backdate it to June 6, but tenants’ minister Harvie said that it would be contrary to the spirit of the bill as landlords would not have been unaware of the incoming rent freeze. The amendments were voted down in the end, but several others passed.

One revision from Labour MSP Mark Griffin, that would require landlords who want to evict a tenant to sell their property to alleviate financial hardship would have to sign an affidavit, passed with government support.

Paul Sweeney, Labour MSP for Glasgow Region, while moving an amendment, which passed, calling for tenants to be given appropriate information and advice during the rent freeze period said: “I support the principle of this legislation and I hope that this amendment will be received by the Government in the spirit it is intended to be constructive and non-contentious.

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"I welcome the fact that the Government has brought this legislation forward, and although I do think it could and should have been done sooner, it should go further and ultimately do more to address the fundamental imbalance of power between tenants and their landlords.”

A LibDem amendment, which did not pass, attempted to exclude the social housing and mid-market sectors from the bill, as they said they are already controlled through “tried and tested systems” which have kept rents at half the price of those in the private sector.

MSP Willie Rennie, speaking after his amendment was voted down, said: “Not only would the cap be redundant for these tenants, the damage it might wreak could be significant. It could prevent the sector from planning for the future and this uncertainty could mean a cut to house building and maintenance programmes.”

Tenants' rights minister Patrick Harvie said the government couldn't support amendments which 'weakened or undermined' safeguards (Image: NQ)

Rennie urged MSPs to reconsider the move during stage three proceedings on Thursday.

The final amendment, number 101, from LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton called for a report on discussions with the Crown ahead of the legislation being introduced but did not pass, despite reports that King Charles vetted the bill.

“I believe Parliament deserves to know what specific changes, if any, have been made to this legislation,” he added.

In the final stages of the debate, Greene intervened to ask Housing Secretary Shona Robison why she was rejecting amendments that “simply seek to enhance the levels of scrutiny parliament can provide and expand data made available to us”.

“Simply by saying that we will make a statement it will all be fine, trust us on it, any coherent rationale on why they’re pushing back on these amendments at stage two,” Greene added.

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The exchange came amid a debate on a series of grouped amendments relating to additional information MSPs were asking the government to provide.

Robison hit back that she was backing two amendments by Griffin and Sweeney, which called for the creation of evidence-based reports. She said: “If you actually just listen to what people say, you would perhaps not have to make interventions that are a bit silly to be honest.”

Stage three proceedings will be held in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday afternoon following FMQs.