RESTRICTIONS on how much a landlord can increase rent by are on the cards for Glasgow.

Councillors on the Neighbourhoods, Housing and Public Realm City Policy Committee approved a report on Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ) to go to the full council meeting in the summer.

It sets out potential measures the city would need to take to clamp down on high rent hikes.

If implemented, it could see annual rent rises in some areas like the West End reduced to one per cent a year.

Councillor Hanzala Malik said: “Ordinary people have seen a standstill to their pay for seven years but their rent has persistently increased for years – people are not happy.

“It’s okay for people on reasonable salaries but there are a lot of people out there who can’t afford it, so we have to deliver for them.

“So that’s why I am pressing the point its critical, we need to start doing something. The time for talking about rent pressure zones is over.”

To apply an RPZ, the council would need to prove to the Scottish Government that rent is rising too quickly, it is causing undue hardship and the local authority is under pressure to subsidise an increase in social housing as a result.

At the committee, Tom Turley, the council’s assistant director for regeneration and development, said his department would need significant investment to gather the data and run an RPZ.

He hopes to “put more flesh on” the report which will go to the full council later this year to answer some questions on how much it will cost the city to gather extensive data on private rental prices.

The RPZ will only apply to tenants in a Private Residential Tenancy (PRT), brought in by the Scottish Government in 2016 changes to legislation.

In a few years time after a transitionary period, all private rental agreements will be PRTs, hence the waiting period before a rent pressure zone could be brought in.

Councillors all appeared to be in agreement that the rising cost of rent and living was outweighing tenants’ wages increases.