SCOTLAND’S tenants’ union Living Rent unveiled its manifesto for the future of the country’s housing yesterday, including massive overhauls to lessen the inequality between renters and landlords.

The union set out a number of proposals ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections, which it said would tackle the shortage of housing north of the border.

“The pandemic has not brought new issues to the front but has rather acted as a stress test, revealing pre-existing fractures,” a Living Rent statement said.

“From putting their lives at risk as essential workers to facing financial collapse, working-class people are set to absorb the impact of economic disaster for the second time in a generation.

“The Holyrood elections in 2021 are therefore a vital opportunity to rebuild for Scotland a fair, just, affordable housing system for all tenants.”

The manifesto outlines five commitments which Living Rent would like to see introduced, including giving social landlords the first option to purchase homes previously acquired under right-to-buy legislation.

The union also called for new housing developments to be focused on the site of former public-sector homes, tackling the amount of vacant land left behind by mass demolitions in Scotland.

Social tenants should also be given greater protections from rent increases, the union said, alongside rent controls to improve the quality of existing housing stock on a points-based system.

Living Rent also believes that a new Scottish rent affordability index should be put in place to peg maximum rents at levels that tenants can afford, ultimately leading to reductions for many.

It said: “Scotland has a shortage of homes. With social housing sold off to buy-to-let landlords, vast swathes of it destroyed over the past few decades and with the rest hidden behind unaccountable housing associations, our homes have become a precarious and uncertain environment.

“What is more, rent has continued to skyrocket in the social and private sector whilst wages have stagnated or fallen in real terms. This has forced many tenants into further housing insecurity.

“An insecure, unsafe, unaccountable housing system destroys what should be safe, secure, stable homes. United, we can end housing insecurity.”