Justine Pédussel, outgoing Vice President of Communities and incoming Union President, has successfully lobbied for changes to the Housing (Scotland) Bill, after advocating for fairer student housing for nearly a year.
Having served as Housing Officer before VP of Communities, housing has always been a key issue for Justine. She co-founded the National Union of Student’s (NUS) National Housing Campaign that allowed students to lobby changes to the Housing (Scotland) Bill 2025.
Justine arranged multiple meetings with MSPs from across the political spectrum, including Stirling’s local MSP, Evelyn Tweed (SNP).
One amendment includes putting student housing on equal footing to other tenancies within the bill, including in decision-making processes for where rent-controlled areas should be.
The amendments would also include adding student tenancies to the definition of relevant tenancies covered by the bill.
As well as this, the bill proposes including student tenancies in reports that local authorities send to ministers and the requirement for ministers to accept local authority recommendations on rent control areas. Effectively, student tenancies are to be seen as equal to regular tenancies in regard to legislation.
Justine said: “After months of campaigning and meeting with relevant MSPs across-parties, I am thrilled that students are being listened to and key aspects of our views on housing are being taken into account. This is a major win!
“The amendments we have lobbied for are incredibly important as they recognise students in the housing bill and will fundamentally improve the rights that students have.
“Importantly, it levels the playing field between landlords and students and recognises the rights that students should have compared to tenants in the private sector.
“While these amendments address several of the issues that students face, there is still work to be done, especially around guarantors and joint tenancies.
“It is disappointing that the Scottish Government objected to these amendments, however, despite this, it is extremely positive that there was cross-party consensus amongst the other members of the Housing and Planning Committee who accepted these amendments.”
Featured Image Credit: @stirlingunion and @stir_communities on Instagram
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