On the 28th November our Operations Director, David Gibb, joined Nick Jurie from the Scottish Tenants Organisation on The Nine show to discuss the rising rental costs in Scotland and the current housing crisis.
Acknowledging the increase in demand for housing overall affecting rental costs, both agreed that the rental caps put in place weren’t the solution and instead the Scottish Government need to find a solution for the lack of social housing. Whilst rental prices have increased despite the caps in place, landlords feeling the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and mortgage rates have felt no choice in having to increase rental rates to cover their bills.
With Edinburgh and Argyll and Bute having both declared a housing emergency and Glasgow City Council predicted to follow suit, the Scottish Government needs to find a wider approach that looks at all areas of the Scottish housing market, not just the private rental sector.
When asked for a solution of how to make the private rental sector more affordable, David Gibb said:
“This is not a simple overnight solution. What we need to see from the Government is an approach to the private rental sector as well as other housing sectors to come together to work out how we can resolve this and encourage more investment into the Scottish housing market.”
“You have to have all housing sectors working together.”
Listen here:
