Edinburgh councillor appeals to standards watchdog over private renters blocked vote on rent freeze

An appeal to the standards watchdog has been made after private tenant Edinburgh councillors were blocked from voting on rent freeze.
Marco Biagi, Edinburgh SNP Councillor for Colinton/FairmileheadMarco Biagi, Edinburgh SNP Councillor for Colinton/Fairmilehead
Marco Biagi, Edinburgh SNP Councillor for Colinton/Fairmilehead

It comes after councillors were advised to sit out of a debate on a rent freeze in the city on council house rent that also called on the Government to maintain a freeze on private and social rented homes. Earlier this month a change in the law was passed which banned rent increases and evictions as part of a raft of measures to protect tenants during the cost of living crisis.

Council leader Cammy Day wrote to the Scottish Government requesting that the freeze which will be in place until the spring remain in place until longer-term rent controls are in place. When the Housing Committee discussed the implications of a third rent freeze in September guidance was issued to councillors who are private rented tenants over a declaration of interests.

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The guidance added that while the Councillors’ Code of Conduct gives an exemption allowing representatives who are council house tenants to vote on council rents – there was no such exemption for private renters and landlords. Council chiefs said the decision was taken on the grounds that councillors who rented in the private sector would have a financial and declarable interest that would prevent them from voting on the issue.

But Marco Biagi hit out at the move saying he had ‘reluctantly’ followed advice of the senior council staff to step out of this debate. He said at the time: “But I am not convinced that the advice given is sound. Every councillor has to live somewhere so does everyone have to declare an interest whenever housing is discussed?”

Tenant’s union Living Rent also criticised the decision claiming the move suggested renters weren’t being taken seriously and stressed that councillors need to be able to represent their constituents. Now SNP Councillor Biagi has submitted a formal application to the Standards Commission asking them to grant dispensation to allow voting on private rental sector policy for councillors who are tenants in private rents.

He told the Evening News: "I'm quietly hopeful they will issue some clarifying guidance. A quarter of Edinburgh's households are in the private rented sector. Are they going to have no representation? With more powers coming down the line on regulation of the private rented sector we're going to be discussing this more often as a council so hopefully we will have clarity before we have to take more big decisions."

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Writing on twitter he said: “Many councillors, including me, were advised to leave the chamber at the last Edinburgh Council because we are private tenants and we were to debate the private rented sector. The barring of democratically-elected councillors in this way should not be allowed to stand.

“This afternoon I submitted a formal application to Standards Commission Scotland to either grant dispensation to vote on private rental sector policy, or to decline to rule and thereby clarify that such dispensation is unnecessary.

"It is right that as a councillor I should be barred from decisions about my individual landlord or letting agent. But that is VERY different to being barred from taking part in debates on policies for regulating and managing the private rented sector as a whole.”

The council has been for comment.

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