“As the necessity of extending the eviction ban grows ever more obvious, we must remember: Your landlord is not your friend. They are not your genial host. They sustain themselves by leeching from you all they can get, in exchange for which they occasionally send someone round to fix the boiler.”
Living Rent
Living Rent are campaigning against the development of the old Tynecastle School in Gorgie/Dalry into purpose built student accommodation, as they argue affordable and social housing are much needed in the area.
Campaigners Fight Further Student Housing in Edinburgh
As the majority of Scotland moves out of tier 3, the temporary eviction ban has lifted, and campaigners are anticipating a wave of evictions despite not being clear of the pandemic.
Calls for Eviction Ban to Be Extended as Covid Uncertainty Continues
“Tenants were already being driven into poverty by unaffordable rents before the pandemic, but the situation is now beyond repair, and we need to undo the damage that has already been done before we start to talk about stabilising things.”
Gordon Maloney: “The Scottish Government had multiple opportunities to freeze rents over the course of the pandemic, but they rejected all of them”
“There is absolutely no good reason why Scotland should not seek to replicate the French ‘winter truce’, or trêve hivernale, which officially prohibits evictions between 1 November and 31 March.”
The eviction ban highlights the need for a permanent Scottish ‘winter truce’
Ahead of SNP annual conference tomorrow, Living Rent tenants’ union are delivering their Tenant Manifesto to the SNP’s party HQ in Edinburgh. They’re calling for proper rent controls, after the Scottish Parliament introduced Rent Pressure Zones in 2016 that councils have been unable to use, due to the cost of data collection requirements placed on them to […]
A strange conference in a strange moment for the SNP
“What we have learned over the past year is that the planet can be thrown into an upheaval without precedent, and the renter’s lot will remain an unchanging, unloved constant.”
Sean Bell: If the pandemic couldn’t break the stranglehold of landlords on Scotland, what will?
Living Rent members are petitioning to strip cleaning giant ISS of its contract with Edinburgh City Council after low-rise flats are not cleaned for the duration of the lockdown.
Hygiene in Low-Rise Flats Poses High Risk During Pandemic
Nicola Sturgeon announced that the eviction ban in Scotland is to be extended until March 2021, however there have been 350 eviction orders applied for already, with many more expected.