This is the list of documents available for the submission By Bailie Christy Mearns:- "Council notes its recent Housing Strategy Annual Report 2020 which highlights that 'registered private rented sector dwellings now account for around 20% of all housing within Glasgow having more than doubled over the last decade" and that this has "concentrated housing wealth and constrained demand, particularly for younger households unable to access finance for buying a home'. Council notes that rents in Glasgow continue to rise at unacceptable levels; new statistics show that in the last 10 years private-sector rents have risen by a staggering 41%, and continue to rise well above the rate of inflation. Council recalls its decision in 2017 to progress, with cross-party support, work on Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs), however notes that full proposals for RPZs have not been possible due to constraints of current legislation, and therefore believes that the 2016 Private Housing legislation which created RPZ powers is fundamentally flawed and that there is a strong need to consider alternative protections for tenants. Council further notes that the number of people in the private-rented sector who are living in poverty has tripled over the last decade, according to research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; and that 72% of private-rented homes are understood to be in critical disrepair as well as of a poorer energy efficiency standard (Scottish House Condition Survey 2018). Council also recognises the compounding impact that the Coronavirus pandemic is having on renters, many of whom still face eviction this winter and beyond, through no fault of their own. Council considers that it lacks the range of powers needed to tackle these interrelated issues of increasingly concentrated housing wealth, excessive rent rises, housing standards, poverty and housing insecurity. Council therefore agrees that Glasgow has a rent crisis and resolves to set up a tenant-led Commission to make recommendations on reforms needed to address this crisis. Council also agrees to write to the Housing Minister in these terms asking him to account for the flaws in the 2016 Private Housing legislation and to set out what further action the Scottish Government will take to ensure effective regulation of the private-rented sector so that it provides secure, affordable, low carbon, high quality housing for tenants in Glasgow.".

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