Shelter Scotland has announced a new campaign to make the country's private rented sector fairer for families.

The 'Make Renting Right' initiative was launched at Holyrood yesterday and aims to build public support for reforming private tenancy law.

Shelter Scotland says there are currently 312,000 households living in homes that are rented privately across Scotland, amounting to 13% of all housing.

One in four private rented households have children, while the number of families living in the private rented sector has more than doubled in the last 10 years.

The charity claims a shortage of affordable social housing has driven more people into the private rented sector.

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Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: "We want to see a private rented sector that is fit for families and protects all tenants – a sector that provides long-term homes, not short-term housing.

"Short-term tenancy agreements do not provide the stability and security individuals and, in particular, the more than 80,000 families with children need in order to live a settled life.

"Too often we hear of people being moved on, evicted or rents increased unreasonably, forcing people into the disruptive cycle of having to move house - every six months in some cases - preventing them from ever being able to put down strong roots and being part of a community."

Shelter Scotland’s key aims include:

• a modern tenancy agreement that gives both tenants and landlords security

• more stability for people wanting to make rented housing their home

• flexibility for people who want to stay in their rented home to do so for as long as they want

• a better system for sorting out renting problems

• a structure for more predictable rent rises should they be required

(IT/CD)