Chamber and committees

We are doing all we can to support tenants to remain in their homes whilst the pandemic continues to risk people’s health and have already taken a range of action to support this.

Given the relaxation of rules with regards to the mixing of households over the festive period - and the potential that this could lead to people needing to self-isolate safely, at home – the First Minister updated Parliament last week that the Scottish Government will take forward regulations to introduce a ban on the enforcement of eviction orders in both the private and social rented sectors from 11 December to 22 January. The only exceptions to this are the most serious circumstances such as antisocial or criminal behaviour, including domestic abuse.

This temporary action is in direct response to the continued need to protect public health during the challenging times that we continue to face.

We are also taking this step to support people’s mental health, in particular those families with children, to provide some stability and certainty for the festive period in what has been an unprecedented year for everyone. It is only right that - at a time when we are so close to taking the first major steps in combatting this virus - that we put in place additional measures to ensure tenants and our front line services, including health and housing services, are protected.

We do not take this unprecedented action lightly, we know the rights of tenants and landlords need to be balanced. Landlords too face uncertainty and financial difficulties as a result of the pandemic, which is why this action is time limited but we are in unprecedented times when unprecedented action is needed to protect people from the health, social and economic harms of the virus.

A copy of the SSI can be found here: The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (legislation.gov.uk)