The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) recently appeared in front of the Scottish Parliament’s Infrastructure and Capital Investment (ICI) Committee, to give oral evidence on the Housing (Scotland) Bill.

The Bill was introduced in November last year and contains a number of key provisions, including the abolition of the Right to Buy for council houses and the creation of new housing tribunal as a specialist decision maker for disputes in the private rented sector. (See our earlier blog for more details.)

In its evidence, SFHA welcomed the Scottish Government’s abolition of the Right to Buy policy, but warned against raising tenant expectations to unrealistic levels in relation to how swiftly antisocial behaviour can be dealt with.

“The Housing Bill is very well intentioned, but, while quite bold in places, does not go far enough in others,” explained Andy Young, SFHA Policy and Membership Manager. “Some of the other measures in the Bill around managing tenancies seem to strike a reasonable balance between allowing landlords to take more robust action and affording more protection for tenants by ensuring that landlords are fully accountable for any such action.”

However, he warned that these measure alone were not a panacea to tackle antisocial behaviour.

“This will still require a multi-agency approach and a less congested court system, and there is a danger that the expectations of those tenants whose lives are blighted by the thoughtless actions of their neighbours will be raised to unrealistic levels by some of the language being used by the Scottish Government,” he said. “The measures contained in the Bill are but a small part of the overall action required to properly tackle antisocial behaviour”.

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