TENANTS’ union Living Rent rallied hundreds of protesters outside Holyrood on Wednesday night on the eve of Scotland taking its first step towards permanent rent controls.

The Housing (Scotland) Bill passed its first stage today after years of campaigning from Living Rent to regulate the sector.

Living Rent national campaigns chairwoman Ruth Gilbert said: “Housing costs are the single largest driver of poverty in Scotland — rents are out of control.

“We’ve seen massive spikes, we’ve had 90 per cent increases in rent in Glasgow over the last 10 years, 80 per cent in Edinburgh and rents keep going up.

“No other business goes unregulated like this, its time for the Scottish government to act and bring rents down.

“What we’ve got in the Bill at the moment is the possibility to have rents that are capped between tenancies, so they are tied to the property and not the tenancy, which is significant.

“We’re seeing a wave of evictions because landlords are incentivised to evict tenants in order to up the rent, so its really key that we see the Bill voted through.”

Concerns have grown however that the Bill has softened its approach, after already conceding to above-inflation rent increases to landlords in its first draft.

Ms Gilbert added: “There’s a big fight ahead.

“We know that the SNP and Tories are going to be submitting pretty significant amendments at stage two and they’re going to try and water down the Bill significantly, so we need everybody to get behind Living Rent, we need all of our trade union allies to back us and we need strong, robust rent controls that are going to bring rents down.”

Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie also warned against any attempts to “water down” measures.

He said: “All over our country, there are households and families struggling to make ends meet and worrying about how they will pay their rent.

“It doesn’t need to be like this. Everyone has the right to a warm, safe and affordable place to call home.

“We will stand against all attempts to water it down or to put the interests of the exploitative landlords ahead of tenants.”

Ahead of the debate, landlord and SNP Housing Minister Paul McLennan said: “The rent control measures in the Housing (Scotland) Bill aim to stabilise private-sector rents by protecting tenants who rely on the private rented sector for a home.”