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17/12/25 3:30 pm
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Scotland’s first Reform UK councillor has warned that build-to rent owning pension companies are going to accelerate rising rents.
David McLennan, new councillor for Whitburn and Blackburn, says SNP politicians don’t understand that while they are “sabre-rattling against wicked landlords”, the people they are allegedly trying to protect – tenants – are being penalised by having to pay more for somewhere to stay.
“If you still think it is a good idea to get rid of smaller private landlords, just wait till you see how the pension companies, with their build-to rent empires, are going to change the market,” says McLennan. “Not only are they already expensive and difficult for ordinary renters to access, but they’re also going to increase rents even more.”
Writing in ThinkScotland, he says he used to own 17 properties in Edinburgh and West Lothian, and made sure they were safe, comfortable and compliant. However, he’s now sold 15 of them and believes his life is much simpler, less hassled and just as financially rewarding.
“The private sector has been treated abominably over the past ten years, starting with the abolition of claiming mortgage interest against rental income, through to the draconian proposals of the SNP/Green alliance, attempting to ensure that a tenant could almost never be removed from a property at the end of their tenancy,” he adds.
“Successive governments have treated landlords as if they are criminals. This has led to many deciding they’ve had enough of this game and selling up – where they can gain possession.”
He believes there is no financial incentive for landlords to buy more flats to add to their portfolios, or to become a landlord, in the face of such hostility from left-wing governments.
Adds McLennan: “The only way to defeat homelessness is to encourage private sector landlords to buy more properties, that can be rented out at fair market rents to tenants who are trustworthy and credible, but I fear that, under the SNP, landlord bashing will just continue to get worse.”
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