Rents to be Frozen and Evictions Banned across Scotland

Rents are set to be frozen and evictions should soon be banned across Scotland as policymakers aim to offset some of the worst impacts of the cost of living crisis.

Describing the current situation in Scotland as a “humanitarian emergency”, first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said her government will take “immediate action to protect tenants in the private and social renting sectors”.

Ms Sturgeon has also announced that fares on ScotRail trains will be frozen at their current levels until at least March next year.

Speaking soon after it was confirmed Liz Truss would become the new UK prime minister, Scotland’s first minister insisted that she does not have the power to freeze energy bills which have become a huge source of financial anxiety across the country in recent months. 

“The Scottish government does not have the power to stop your energy bills soaring, but we can and will take action to make sure that your rent does not rise,” she said.

Ms Sturgeon has explained that a set of emergency laws will soon introduce a moratorium on evictions across Scotland to “give people security about the roof over their heads”.

Plans are also in place for a rent freeze to be introduced and for the Scottish Child Payment policy to see its weekly payments increased to £25 per week from November 14th.

“This programme for government is published in the context of the most severe cost crisis in many of our lifetimes,” Ms Sturgeon said in an official statement.

“It is a crisis pushing millions into poverty and poses a genuine danger, not just to livelihoods, but to lives,” she added.

In recent days, the homelessness charity Shelter Scotland called on the first minister to take bold action in response to the country’s housing crisis which it said looked set to worsen significantly as the cost of living crisis continues.

Back in April, the same charity reported that almost half of Scots had already at some stage struggled to pay their housing costs and warned that the cost of living crisis would have a major impact on homelessness unless the key issues were properly addressed.  

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