Rented sector reform: Housing (Scotland) Bill: business and regulatory impact assessment

Implementation and delivery plan

A number of the rented sector reform measures in the Bill will require further consultation followed by secondary legislation before they can be fully implemented. These measures provide frameworks which allow for flexibility, in order to mitigate any risks from unintended consequences that arise during delivery. Implementation of the measures, should the Bill be approved by the Scottish Parliament, will be over multiple years. In developing the Financial Memorandum for the Bill,^[146] implementation costs have been apportioned primarily from 2025-26 to 2028-29. However, this is not an implementation timeline, which will depend on a range of factors including timescales for passage of the Bill, Ministerial priorities and resources.

Consideration of potential monitoring and evaluation approaches once the measures in the Bill are implemented are set out above, and the Scottish Government will continue to engage with stakeholders and representative organisations during and post-implementation, in order to ensure smooth delivery and reduce the risks of the policy objectives not being achieved.

As already set out above, a number of public bodies will be involved in implementation of the rented sector reform measures in the Bill, and this involvement has been costed in this document and in the Financial Memorandum which accompanied the draft legislation where possible.

Some measures, such as the requirement to periodically assess rent conditions, and potential further data gathering from landlords as part of this, will be led by local authorities once this section of the Bill comes into force, with the due date of the outcome of the first assessment being set in the primary legislation. The provisions in the Bill allow the Scottish Ministers to issue guidance to local authorities, after appropriate consultation, to support this. Consideration is also being given to options for further data collection to support the local authority assessments, and this may require further involvement from the Scottish Government and RSS.

There may be some changes to be made by the SCTS in relation to potential new application routes for the Tribunal, for example, although ultimately the Tribunal’s caseload will be demand-led. Likewise, there are also likely to be new routes of application to RSS, although these would only apply in areas where rent controls are in place.

Implementation of changes to enable the use of unclaimed tenancy deposit funds is expected to take longer than other measures in the Bill. This is due to the legislative periods for former tenants to reclaim a deposit after the end of the tenancy which will first expire five years after commencement. This will give tenancy deposits schemes a long lead-in time to make any administration changes.

To support the implementation of the proposed changes across the rented sectors, the Scottish Government will undertake a range of activities to raise awareness of the changes to support both tenants and landlords, helping to ensure that they are aware of the new rights and responsibilities arising from this legislation.

Key work will include:

• Comprehensive awareness raising to ensure that landlords and tenants are aware of the implementation of the changes;
• Work with stakeholders to disseminate information on the proposed changes;
• Dissemination of information direct to landlords and letting agents to raise awareness and support understanding of the changes;
• Provision of information for both landlords and tenants on government web pages that will provide up-to-date information on the changes;
• Updates to the suite of online tools and information which the Scottish Government provides to support landlords and tenants to understand their rights and responsibilities, and help ensure compliance with legislative requirements; and
• Potential development of further tools to support landlords and tenants.