By Graeme Brown

The Scottish Government is expected to publish its Private Tenancies Bill. This Bill will represent the most significant changes and reforms to the laws and regulations that govern Scotland’s growing private rented sector (PRS) in more than a quarter of a century.

The Bill intends to rebalance the relationship between tenants and landlords to modernise and strengthen the rights of the growing number of PRS tenants in Scotland. While the devil will be in the detail, in principle this is a welcome step on an issue that Shelter Scotland has been actively campaigning on for more than 10 years.

Due in part to a chronic underinvestment in affordable homes in Scotland in recent decades, the latest figures show that 14 per cent of all Scottish households now live in the PRS: some 330,000 households. This is up from five per cent of all households in 1999.

With this major growth of the sector in recent years, the type of households who live in the PRS has also changed significantly. Some 85,000 households, more than one quarter of all those who live in the PRS, are now made up of families with children, which is proportionately more than any other tenure except owner-occupiers. It is increasingly the only choice for those individuals and families for whom buying a home of their own is not an affordable option and for whom access to the social rented sector isn’t possible due to the lack of social-rented housing.

In its current form, the private rented sector does not meet the needs of these households that are looking for long term stability and seeking to make their private rented tenancy a long-term home, not just a short-term house.

In addition to the changing demographics of the people living there, it is easy to understand the need for reform in the PRS when we look at the number of people who have come to Shelter Scotland for help from the PRS in recent years: despite only representing 14 per cent of all households, 46 per cent of all calls to our free national helpline last year were from people living in the PRS.

Also, the proportion of homeless applications in Scotland from households renting in the private sector has grown from 13 per cent (7,569) in 2008-09 to 18 per cent (6,382) in 2013-14; though this coincides with a growth in the number of households renting in the sector, the proportion of homeless applications is still disproportionate to the number of privately renting households

It is the lack of security of tenure that is the biggest problem for the growing number of individuals and families wanting to be able to call the PRS home. The forthcoming legislation aims to address this issue by removing the "no fault ground for possession", which allows landlords to bring a tenancy to an end without providing a reason.

This can be a huge shock to tenants, many of whom will have established roots in their communities, have children in local schools and are near to local support networks. This sense of insecurity is compounded by the fact that many are afraid to insist upon essential repairs being done to their property for fear that, if they complain, they will be asked to leave their home.

The Scottish Government’s proposed reform will increase security of tenure by ensuring that private landlords have a genuine reason for needing the property back before ending the tenancy; for example, they need to live in the property, sell it or the tenant has broken the tenancy agreement.

This is an essential and common-sense rebalancing of the rights of landlords and tenants. Instead of being able to end a tenancy agreement on a whim, landlords will have a set procedure to follow and tenants will be empowered as consumers to ensure they are getting a fair deal from private renting. The knowledge that their landlord cannot just simply end a tenancy without reason will put families – especially those with children – on a stronger footing, safe in the knowledge that they won’t be asked to leave at short notice.

The forthcoming reforms won’t by any means solve all of Scotland’s housing problems. But it is hoped they will be an important step towards a rebalancing of rights that will provide a growing number of tenants and families with security and stability by protecting them from arbitrary eviction.

Graeme Brown is Director at Shelter Scotland.