Just when it seemed the SNP had realised how damaging rent caps were for house builders, up comes another plan to put a limit of 6 per cent on rises landlords might wish to introduce.
The Scottish Government's rent controls only expired two weeks ago, having been frozen in 2022 and then capped for the past two years.
But although landlords could only increase rents to keep pace with costs and inflation when a tenancy expired, rents rose faster in those two years than they had for the whole of the previous 12.
And the experiment proved that rent caps succeeded in encouraging the house builders and property investors, like the big pension funds, to look elsewhere.
Yet under amendments to the Housing (Scotland) Bill, caps are coming back, with increases in rent control areas limited to the annual rate of inflation plus 1 per cent, to to a maximum increase of 6 per cent. If there is one guaranteed way to make sure the housing emergency becomes permanent, it's imposing political gimmicks like this on a market where the capital, like water, follows the path of lease resistance.
It's not hard to pinpoint the problem in Edinburgh, of more people looking for a place to live than there are homes available to buy or rent, and some common sense is badly needed here before a bad situation becomes even worse.
