Edinburgh housing: Complaint about councillor who branded private landlords 'entitled parasites' thrown out

Landlords claimed the comments were amounted to bullying and discrimination.

An independent councillor who branded private landlords ‘entitled parasites’ has had complaints about him thrown out by an ethics watchdog.

Ross McKenzie made the comments on social media in a discussion about new short term let regulations, sparking anger from three landlords who submitted complaints to the ethical standards commissioner about his conduct. It came after the Gorgie councillor said he had discovered from the landlord register that almost all 16 flats in just one tenement building were owned by private landlords.

He had said there should be zero short-term lets then later deleted that post saying it had been ‘flippant’. But then he hit back at claims by a private landlord that councillors ‘never worked tirelessly to make ends meet’ replying: “I have *worked tirelessly* in health and social care for the past 20 years while handing over a huge proportion of my income to landlords who contribute nothing. Thousands of people in Edinburgh are in the same boat and need representation far more than these entitled parasites.”

Complaints about councillor Ross McKenzie were thrown out

One landlord replied to his comments at the time demanding a retraction claiming it was unacceptable for an elected representative to make ‘offensive’ comments about landlords, who would be among those living in his ward. Three landlords complained on grounds that the comments were bullying, disrespectful and amounted to discrimination against landlords.

But the complaints were rejected by the watchdog which concluded that the criticism was of ‘landlords in general’ and was not directed at any individual landlord. Mr McKenzie repeated the statement saying landlords are ‘parasites’ on December 11 in a tweet confirming the decision to throw out the complaints.

The standards commissioner ruled that there was no evidence that the comments had resulted in any discrimination towards landlords. In a decision letter complainers were advised that a councillor was entitled to publicise their views on matters of public interest.

In conclusion, the Commissioner acknowledged that the comments could be seen as by some ‘on the face of it’ as disrespectful or ‘impolite' but that it didn’t amount to contravention of the code of conduct.

Responding to the Commissioner's decision Mr McKenzie dismissed the complaints as ‘spurious’. He told the Evening News: “I'm sorry that the Commissioner had to spend time explaining to the complainants that ‘landlord’ is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. It’s obvious that my comments were not personal and that these complaints were spurious. Landlordism is inherently parasitic – landlords receive rent simply because they happen to own a piece of land and the rent they receive comes from the labour of their tenants. This statement is not controversial.

“I believe that the abolition of landlordism is a basic pre-requisite for any serious attempt to create a fair and equal society and I’m pleased that the Commissioner has defended my right to say that publicly.”

It was ruled that the complaints didn’t meet eligibility criteria for being admissible for investigation and as a result, no further action will be taken.