Housing (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment summary

Purpose and intended effect

Background

The Housing (Scotland) Bill (“the Bill”) was announced in the Programme for Government 2022-23 and 2023-24. The Bill was introduced to Parliament on 26 March 2024. Information about the background and the policy intention behind the Bill is set out in the Policy Memorandum which accompanies the Bill. The Bill, Policy Memorandum and other accompanying documents are available from the Scottish Parliament website.^[1]

This document sets out a summary of the results from the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (“BRIA”) carried out in respect of the measures within the Bill. The scope of this BRIA is focused on the possible business and regulatory impacts that may occur from implementing the policy provisions within the Bill.

If passed by Parliament, the Bill will provide Scottish Ministers with powers to make regulations or take other steps, such as providing guidance, to support future implementation of the measures. Where the Scottish Government makes regulations and provides guidance to support implementation, there will be further consultation with stakeholders, and the business and regulatory impacts will be considered in detail as part of that process.

Screening

Measures which require further assessment

The Scottish Government has conducted a screening exercise which determined that a BRIA is required for the following measures in the Bill, as set out in the table below. This document sets out a high level summary of the BRIA assessments which have identified impacts in relation to business or regulation. Further information can be found in the three individual final BRIA assessments which identified impacts. These final BRIA assessments have been published on the Scottish Government website.

Measures which do not require further assessment

Part 4 - Registration of letting agents etc.

A full BRIA^[5] was carried out at the introduction of the letting agent legislation (for Part 4 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 (“2014 Act”)). The amendments to the sections of the 2014 Act proposed in the Bill relating to letting agent registration focus on strengthening the information Scottish Ministers have to allow them to be satisfied that letting agents meet, and continue to meet, the requirements for registration. They also seek to ensure that mechanisms are in place to allow full consideration of all relevant factors when considering a letting agent’s application. The amendments do not represent a change in policy or direction of the original legislation and accordingly the amendments were screened as having no further business or regulatory impact.

Part 6 - Fuel Poverty

These are minor operational provisions which have the potential to strengthen engagement and it will be important to ensure we undertake a proportionate level of consultation as part of our statutory requirements related to the periodic reporting process and any future strategy review. The Scottish Government considers the provisions will have no particular direct or indirect impact on business or regulation. Therefore BRIA is not required for these specific measures in the Bill.

Part 6 - New Homes Ombudsman

This is a minor provision which enables the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to share information with the UK New Homes Ombudsman, when established. The Scottish Government considers this will have no particular direct or indirect impact on business or regulation. Therefore BRIA is not required for these specific measures in the Bill.

Objective

The Bill is ambitious in responding to the need to improve the housing outcomes in Scotland for people who live mainly in rented accommodation and for those who face homelessness. At the same time, it seeks to proportionately control the use of a landlord’s property for rental purposes, while achieving a fair balance between protection for tenants and the rights of landlords.

The Bill contains a package of reforms which will help ensure people have a safe, secure, and affordable place to live. It also helps to deliver the Scottish Government’s ‘New Deal for Tenants’ and some aspects of ‘Housing to 2040’, while contributing to the ambition to end homelessness in Scotland.

Rationale for Government Intervention

Housing to 2040 sets out a vision for what the Scottish Government wants homes and communities to look and feel like. It is a vision where homes are affordable for everyone, where standards are similar whether you rent or own your home, where homes have easy access to green spaces and essential services and where homelessness, child poverty and fuel poverty have been eradicated.

The Scottish Government is of the view that further long-term changes to improve affordability, fairness and strengthen existing legislation are required to deliver our vision for rented sector housing; in line with commitments made in Housing to 2040, the Bute House Agreement Shared Policy Programme and the New Deal for Tenants Draft Rented Sector Strategy Consultation. We are therefore progressing a range of measures for both the private and social rented sectors through the Housing (Scotland) Bill.

Preventing homelessness from happening in the first place is the most effective way of ending homelessness. Strengthening our approach to prevention will help people avoid crisis situations that often have wider impacts, including on health, justice, education and employment outcomes. There is a clear moral and economic case for taking action to prevent homelessness. We want to avoid people suffering the disruption and indignity of experiencing it. On top of that, the costs of failing to intervene to prevent homelessness often accrue to the public sector, including in health and criminal justice services.

Finally, the Scottish Government is seeking to ensure the protections relating to pitch fee uprating for residents of residential mobile homes remain fair, appropriate, and in line with development of statistical measures of inflation.

More details of the rationale for Government intervention are set out in the Policy Memorandum^[6] accompanying the Bill and in the policy specific BRIAs that have been published, per the table on page 2.