The housing crisis that has been ongoing in Scotland has taken another strand of debate on with questions raised over rent controls from the Scottish Government.

Scotland’s Housing Minister, Paul McLennan, cited schemes across Europe as ‘exemplars’ but some of those have been heavily criticised and even described as an ‘unmitigated disaster’ by opponents of rent control.

Others, such as Living Rent’s Ruth Gilbert, have been keen to ensure rent controls remain in place and say there are plenty of success stories throughout the world where it has worked, with Canada used as an example by her. She wants it to go even further and insists rent controls should be tied to quality to ‘drive up standards in Scotland’s housing stock’.

France is another country that is being held up as an example of how rent controls work and include landlords being unable to hike prices up when a tenant leaves prior to the next person moving in.

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She was speaking as part of The Herald’s Rent Control Investigation series and there were opposition to her views too.

A group called More Homes More Quickly, which ‘collectively represents the entire spectrum of private rented housing providers across Scotland’ say aspects of the measures are ‘particularly worrying’.

After Mr McLennan pointed to rent control schemes in places such as Sweden, Germany and Ireland among others, the group suggested that many of them had got things wrong and made things worse.

They said: “Rent control regimes in these countries can lead to social exclusion, diminishing standards and constrained supply. The unintended consequences are significant.”

They went on to describe Berlin’s rent freeze as an ‘unmitigated disaster’ and called Ireland’s ‘catastrophic’.

John Boyle, of Rettie, also criticised the plans as he shared the view that rent control schemes that follow places such as Sweden and Ireland won’t work in Scotland.

He said: "The Government using Sweden and Ireland as some kind of exemplars for rent controls is particularly worrying - these countries have strict rent control regimes that have had devastating impacts on supply."

Now, we want to hear your thoughts on the rent control schemes and whether they will work in Scotland. 

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