Mayor renews push for rent control powers in London
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has made rent caps in the Capital his top priority in talks with the Government.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan is renewing his efforts to secure rent control powers in the Capital.
He told members of the London Assembly it was top of his list of devolved powers, and it was essential to improve conditions for renters.
Key pledge
Rent controls were one of Khan’s key election pledges before he was re-elected as Mayor in May.
And he has stated many times that he wanted to introduce rent caps in London.
A devolution white paper currently under consideration could lead to new rent controls in different parts of the country.
Why can’t we have what Edinburgh has?”
The Mayor admitted that ministers were not keen on the idea, and an amendment to the Renters’ Rights Bill introducing rent caps was unlikely to be agreed.
He asked, “Why can’t we have what Edinburgh has?”
His argument that the Scottish Government had introduced rent freezes, so why couldn’t the same thing be done in the Capital, appears to be falling on deaf ears in the Government.
Undaunted
But undaunted Khan is ploughing on, perhaps hoping that a change in leadership of the Labour Party, with fellow Mayor Andy Burnham taking over, might mean a shift in position.
Burnham, who is the Mayor of Manchester, is rumoured to be considering a challenge to Sir Keir Starmer as the Prime Minister struggles to asset his authority after just a year in power.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: “The Government will not allow rent controls in London or anywhere else.
“We will empower tenants to challenge excessive rent hikes through our Renters’ Rights Bill to give people housing security.”
It amazes me that the more that politicians and the treasury do not realise the more landlords profits are squeezed the less tax they have to pay. For the first time ever my company owes no corporation tax for last year! Of course we have increased our tenants rents this year in anticipation the government will eventually freeze rents.
Should the State be stamping on the brake of rent controls (which don’t work), when it still has its foot hard down on the accelerator that drives rent rises: Section 24 tax on landlords?
London is particularly affected by unfair tax on landlord gross income before interest cost, as the capital invested in rentals is higher and yields lower. Any chance that Sadiq Khan might do the rational thing, for London tenants and landlords, and urge a return to fair taxation and a consequent increase in supply, and attenuation of rent growth?
With the Renters Rights Bill imminent, government needs to consider how much discrimination it can pile on the suppliers of such an essential service as rental housing and how much it can continually scapegoat the private sector instead of taking the blame itself for the dysfunction caused by its own policies.
From everything we’ve seen of Sadiq Khan, he will just stick his fingers in his ears and bellow “la la la” if anyone asks him to consider basic economics, like supply and demand or the actual real (non-)profits being earnt by landlords in London, or, you know, some actual history, like the comprehensive failure of private rent controls in London before the 1988 Housing Act: decades of collapsing supply, collapsing quality, and the near-total lack of maintenance, let alone new investment. I lived in London in the 1980s and remember what an utter disaster zone it was if you wanted to find anywhere half-decent to rent.