RICHARD LEONARD will today pledge to introduce a “Mary Barbour law” to lower rents and crack down on exploitative landlords.

In a speech to his party’s conference in Dundee, the Scottish Labour leader will advocate a link between rent and earnings enshrined in law.

Fair rents would also be enforced through a “new points-based system” and tenants would be allowed to challenge “unfair” rents or claim for a reduction.

There would also be beefed-up regulations on home safety and energy efficiency.

“We have an old fight on our hands,” Mr Leonard is expected to say.

“Social ills we thought had been dealt with once and for all are back thanks to Tory austerity.

“I can announce today that in Parliament we have begun the work to introduce a new Rent Restrictions Act,  a Mary Barbour law, to protect tenants and to control rents exactly as I pledged to do in my leadership campaign.”

The proposal is named after the leader of the 1915 Glasgow rent strike who was honoured with a new memorial in Glasgow this week.

“The Mary Barbour law will regulate the private rented sector to ensure that no-one is forced to rent a home that pushes them into poverty or falls below the standards needed to protect their physical and mental health and well-being,” he will say.

He will also vow to “start building council houses again,” and invest council pension funds into housebuilding programmes.

“What is needed then is the political will to secure the economic transformation that Scotland needs,” he will add.