Fact sheet: The Letting Agent Registration (Scotland) Regulations 2016

Regulation offers the potential to professionalise the industry, stamp out bad practice, create transparency and give consumers more control over who manages their property. Minimum qualification requirements and statutory Code of Practices to be adhered to by all letting and managing agents in England and sales agents across the UK should be introduced.

Since the introduction of the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, agents have had to adapt to working with the new Private Residential Tenancy (PRT) and get to grips with what that means for them on a day to day basis. One issue that was raised as a potential problem was how to deal with joint tenancies under a PRT where one tenant wants to leave.

New evidence that pensioners are going without food and heating adds greater urgency to our longstanding call for the UK Government to re-link Local Housing Allowance (LHA) to market rents. At the Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026, the Chancellor must restore rates to cover at least the cheapest 30% of local rents, backed by annual increases to prevent support from falling behind again.