With the First Minister’s announcement of more stringent lockdown measures – in part due to contagious mutations of the Covid-19 virus – Govan Law Centre (GLC) is calling for a commensurate extension to the winter eviction ban in Scotland.
The initial ban runs from 11 December to 22 January 2021 and was introduced by The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Protection from Eviction) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 (SSI 2020/425).
GLC’s Principal Solicitor and Solicitor Advocate, Mike Dailly said: “When the Scottish government exercised its powers under the Coronavirus Act 2020 before Christmas to ban winter evictions it did so in response to the serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence and spread of coronavirus in Scotland”.
“That threat is now clearly heightened and more pernicious than before. The thought of parents and children being made homeless during the height of the pandemic makes no sense. The logic for the eviction ban is now more compelling”
“A short extension to the eviction ban would be a proportionate public health response to the Covid-19 threat. It would help prevent additional burdens being placed on Scottish health and housing services, which are already stretched with staff having to work from home or self-isolate”
Note:
Govan Law Centre is one of the biggest law centres in the UK. Our services are mainly in Glasgow but many of our services cover the whole of Scotland. We specialise in landlord and tenant, homelessness and welfare law.
The Scottish Ministers have the power to extend the winter eviction ban in exercise of the powers conferred by paragraph 1(1) of schedule 19 of the Coronavirus Act 2020.
Contact:
Danny Phillips: 07717715277
