Councils and landlords should focus on data collection to aid rent control laws, says Scottish housing minister

Scotland’s housing minister has called on local authorities and private landlords to collect comprehensive data to support the upcoming implementation of rent controls in legislation.

Speaking on a panel at the Chartered Institute of Housing’s (CIH) Scotland Housing Festival, Màiri McAllan said: “We need to make sure that there’s a really well-understood process of data collection, that landlords understand what’s required of them, that councils are able to manage, and that between us, we’re able to assess and say: “Is this an area where rents are rising in an uncontrollable manner, and [does a] rent cap need to be implemented?””

McAllan was asked by the panel chair, ITV and STV reporter Vanessa Taaffe, why she thinks rent controls should be implemented in Scotland given that “we’ve seen quite strong evidence globally that rent controls don’t work.”

She also questioned whether councils “have the resources and data that they say they need to get the information to implement these controls potentially as early as next year.”

The Clydesdale MSP responded that rent controls are “one tool in whole series of things that we should be doing to tackle problems across the board”, adding that the implementation of the measure must be “based on evidence.”

She also confirmed that rent controls are “not intended to be operational for another couple of years.”

Taaffe then asked John Blackwood, chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords, how to avoid the measure becoming “an opportunity for the private rented sector to just hike up rents.”

Blackwood called for a “joined-up and balanced approach” across the sector that is “underpinned by good data.”

Rent controls are being introduced under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, which was passed by Holyrood last October.

The law allows ministers to designate specific local areas as ‘rent control areas’ where housing affordability is an issue. This will cap yearly rent increases at a maximum of 6%. Designations will be based on local authority data, but an exact methodology for these assessments is yet to be confirmed.