Overview

Govan Law Centre (GLC) has won a legal battle against Scottish Parliament Corporate Body forcing them to re-consider the The Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill, a Member’s Bill introduced by Pauline McNeill MSP on 1 June 2020.  

Why it matters

Mike Dailly, solicitor advocate at Govan Law Centre said:

So many of the most financially excluded during the pandemic are private renters who even if in receipt of benefits have massive shortfalls in their rent and are pushed into poverty. The inequity of unfair rents needs to be tackled and tenants need meaningful rights in Scotland. We encourage all tenants and relevant organisations to submit evidence to the Local Government committee on the need for this Bill and rent controls

The Big Picture

A statement on the Govan Law Centre website outlines why this is such an unusual situation:

The Scottish Parliament’s Local Government and Communities Committee originally met in private and threw the bill out because they said they did not have enough time to consider it. It takes years to get a bill to this stage. The committee threw it out within a couple of weeks of it being submitted at one short private meeting, with no explanation – for what is a very important issue for those on low incomes. 

There are no minutes of their discussion, no recorded reasons for the decision given, no recorded votes, no-one declared any the conflict of interests etc (some MSPs on the committee are private landlords). This is about open policy making and open democracy. 

We are convinced this was an unlawful action by the committee. 

Govan Law Centre (with Living Rent) undertook a Judicial Review against the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body. Unfortunately, we lost the case. We ‘appealed’ to the Inner House of the Court of Session.

The committee is now reconsidering the bill. After spending £1000s fighting the case they have done a u-turn. This is unprecedented. Never has a Scottish Parliament committee been forced to reconsider a bill like this. It looks like they agree – they got it wrong. This is a victory for open democracy. 

The Inside Track

What comes next

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