Rent controls needed as existing reforms will ‘take years’, warn campaigners
Rent control is the one policy that can ease the pressure on renters right now, campaigners are saying.
Plans by the Government to tackle rogue landlords and build more council homes “will take years”, campaigners have warned.
They have welcomed the Government’s intention to build more council homes and give councils more powers to tackle landlords renting out the worst quality homes.
However, campaigners at the London Renters Union insisted that the moves would “take years” and “will only work at mass scale”.
Rent controls
In its recent newsletter to tenants, it suggested that the only way to ease pressure on tenants now is for rent controls to be introduced.
It said: “Millions of tenants face a hard winter. Soaring rents and energy bills are forcing people to choose between keeping a roof over their heads and putting food on the table.
“The Government’s plans to seize homes from rogue landlords and build council housing are essential.
“But they take years, and they only work at mass scale. Rent control is the one policy that can ease the pressure on renters right now, and it would save billions in public money currently spent on housing benefit.”
Rent control is the one policy that can ease the pressure on renters right now.”
It added: “The Renters’ Rights Act was a victory our movement fought for. We won an end to Section 21 evictions.
“But it hasn’t ended the affordability crisis. Leaving rents to the market has failed for forty years.”
It went on to describe the housing system as “rigged”, saying we need to win housing justice for all.
In the coming months it said that it is stepping up its campaigns for rent control, against displacement and disrepair, and for a housing system run for the people who live in it.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told The Neg: “Our landmark Renters’ Rights Act is protecting tenants from excessive rent increases by limiting rent rises to once a year, giving tenants strong powers to challenge above-market increases and banning rental bidding wars.
“The best way to ensure long-term housing affordability is to build the homes we so desperately need, and that’s why we’re taking action to boost supply and investing £39billion in social and affordable housing.”
Naive renters’ activists. We already have Rent Control. It is called Section 24 and it controls rents in a strong upwards trajectory.
If “we need to win housing justice for all” then better start with removing the discriminatory and regressive tax that we typically see tripling the tax burden on London landlords. Of course that also drives rents up.