7. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to reports of an increased number of evictions predicted for this autumn. (S5F-04272)

I apologise to Pauline McNeill because I am about to repeat the substance of my earlier answers to Patrick Harvie. I reiterate that no landlord should evict a tenant because they have suffered financial hardship due to the coronavirus. Instead, they should be helping their tenants to access the financial support that they need.

One of the reasons why the Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning wrote to all private sector tenants was to ensure that they are aware of their rights. We also want to help tenants to remain safe in their homes during the pandemic, so we took action, through emergency legislation, to halt eviction actions for up to six months. As I said earlier, that emergency legislation is in place until 30 September. We want, which is subject to the agreement of Parliament, to extend it until March 2021, which I hope underlines the Government’s commitment to doing all that we can to protect tenants and to prevent people from becoming homeless as a result of the pandemic.

I have previously welcomed the increased allocation of money to the discretionary housing payment fund, but it does not touch the problem. In the private rented sector, almost 45 per cent of tenants have seen a drop in their income since March. As we have heard, there are fears of mass evictions—more so because, in the next month, there will be more job losses.

I put on the record that Scottish Labour whole-heartedly supports the First Minister’s announcement today. She will be aware that 25 housing and homelessness organisations called for extension of the no-evictions policy, so the extension is welcome.

However, having rejected the hardship fund and the fair rents bill that I proposed, how else does the First Minister intend to help renters during this unprecedented crisis? Although it has taken some action, the Government does not seem to have a big idea to help them to survive.

The First Minister:

In my response to Patrick Harvie, I already ran through some of the actions that we are taking. We will continue to look at all the steps that we are taking and consider where we can do more, including through financial support. We increased funding for discretionary housing payments in order to help people in the rented sector—Pauline McNeill alluded to that—and we have more than doubled the Scottish welfare fund.

As we put together a programme for Government for the year ahead and look ahead to our budget process, making sure that we help people financially and in other ways with the impact of the crisis will be uppermost in our minds. Clearly, that includes people who are struggling to pay the rent and those who face homelessness. I know that there is genuine willingness right across the chamber to be constructive as we try to come up with the right approaches, which is why I look forward to continuing to have discussions with members including Pauline McNeill, and to being prepared to listen to any suggestions that come forward.

The Presiding Officer:

We have a number of supplementary questions. The first is from Angela Constance, to be followed by Maurice Corry.