A Scottish association of letting agents has merged with a rental website, saying that it will speak up for the industry – and taking an apparent side-swipe at ARLA, saying Scotland had been “ill-served”.

LetScotland, with just over 40 members, and LettingWeb announced that, as a result of the merger, over 420 agents would now be represented.

The announcement said the merger creates “by far the largest representative body for letting agents in Scotland”.

It went on: “It is the only Scottish organisation representing only letting agents which will act as the voice of agents in the media and in parliament and government.”

The new body retains the name LetScotland, but will be branded as a division of the Lettingweb group.

Malcolm Warrack, chairman of LetScotland who continues in that role, said: “LetScotland was formed because the letting agent sector had been ill-served by its representatives. There was no body dedicated to Scottish letting agents, so we created one from the bottom-up.

“Our grassroots movement can now take the next step as we go from being a relatively small voice to by far the largest representative body for letting agents in Scotland.

“The industry needs a single unified voice to speak for it in the media and in parliament. This deal creates that voice.”

ARLA currently has some 150 members in Scotland, according to managing director Ian Potter – himself a Scot.

He said the merger was between a body with no code of practice and a commercial organisation, but that he did not wish to comment further.