As Gove’s renter control bill flounders in the Commons, opposition is mounting to socialist policies in Scotland. Tthe Scottish Government has just published the response to the consultation for its “New Deal for Tenants“, which seeks to extend rent controls, primarily by preventing rents being adjusted in-between tenancies. That’s after Sturgeon’s disastrous 2022 rent freeze and subsequent cap began obliterating the housing market…

ScotGov’s own survey of the sector shows the SNP’s policies have gone down like a cup of cold sick. They admit “the considerable majority of those commenting on rent controls clearly noted their opposition to the proposals” because, as was always obvious, the law will lead to “private landlords choosing to leave the sector and to shortages exacerbating rent inflation“. As comprehensively proved in Berlin and Ireland…

The vast majority of responses attack rent controls in particular. The Scottish Government then goes on to complain of the “relatively high proportion of respondents taking a landlord perspective“, despite the actual number of landlords being less than half. There are already 22,000 fewer homes available to rent in Scotland than only a year ago thanks to SNP policies – a whopping 6.4% of properties have been withdrawn from the market. This is the socialist housing nightmare that Sadiq Khan keeps begging to impose on London…