TENANTS’ union Living Rent have slammed the Scottish government’s “cowardly” policy on exemptions from rent controls.

Permanent rent controls in areas determined by local councils form a key part of the Housing (Scotland) Bill currently making its way through Holyrood, but tenants have already been critical of its “watering down” to allow increases up to 1 per cent above inflation.

SNP Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan has written to Holyrood’s local government, housing and planning committee, expressing her intention to exempt mid-market rent (MMR) and build-to-rent properties from the legislation to keep investors on side, infuriating Scotland’s biggest tenants’ union.

In an open letter, Living Rent have now accused Ms McAllan of allowing the legislation to be “bent to the greed of landlords.”

“Gifting international hedge-funds exemptions from policy designed to control their profits — at the expense of our communities — is not a legacy any housing minister should wish to leave,” it says.

“Your legacy will be turning our cities into play parks for investors.”

The move came despite 94 per cent of the 4,600 responses to the consultation on the Bill saying mid-market rent should not be exempt, and 97 per cent saying the same of build-to-rent homes.

The union’s national campaigns chairwoman Ruth Gilbert said: “If this is how the Scottish government ‘balances’ stakeholder input, the entire consultation on rent controls can only be viewed as a farce, never mind the waste of public money, resources, and energy given to satisfy private investors.

“Exempting build-to-rent from rent controls is unbelievably cowardly, based entirely on false evidence and goes against nearly all of the responses to the government’s consultation.

“The rent controls outlined in the Housing Bill already allow for landlords to make above-inflation profits year-on-year.

“This government needs to stop listening to developers’ crocodile tears and get serious about tackling the housing emergency.”

Ms McAllan said: “The reason I took that decision is because it was based entirely on investment and investment leading to new stock.

“I am expanding the market so that in years to come Scotland would have a much greater supply of housing stock, a mixture, because we need a mixture — social, mid-market rent, build-to-rent — that is going to increase availability, obviously and increase affordability, which is one of the main objections.”