Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer is set to reject London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s calls for power to introduce a rent freeze in the UK capital, where payments for new rentals jumped 17% last year latest, according to research.
Khan has advocated for rent control since being elected mayor for Labor in 2016 and said in a speech on Monday that he would continue to “fight tenants’ corners”. However, he lacks the authority to implement them and his demands have so far been rejected by the British Conservative government.
With opinion polls suggesting a Labor general election victory as early as next year, Khan has stepped up calls for the government to introduce a rent control system that would allow him to ‘give tenants some badly needed respite’ .
Labor said Khan had done “pioneering work” on affordable housing and strengthened protections for tenants. But party insiders told the Financial Times that Starmer’s office had no plans to introduce national rent controls or delegate related powers to mayors if elected.
The admission marks another break by Starmer with the politics of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who backed Khan’s proposals, and comes as Labor and Tory plans to tackle Britain’s housing crisis falter. subject to further examination.
Rents in London on newly let properties rose 17.2% in the year to April, data from the Hamptons estate agency showed on Monday, with the average monthly rent in the capital topping £2,200 for the first time.
In order to curb soaring prices, Khan proposed a “rent control commission”. Bringing tenants and landlords together, it would use a new landlord and rent register to determine how existing rents should be gradually reduced and place limits on rent increases between rentals.
Scotland already caps rent increases in the private sector at 3% per year. Although the limit is due to expire in September, the ruling Scottish National Party has said it will extend it if necessary.
Dan Wilson Craw, acting director of campaign group Generation Rent, said renters across the rest of the UK were in “desperate” need of a rent freeze to protect them from falling property prices, but also called for the construction of more houses.
“We haven’t built enough houses in areas where people want to live,” he said. “Not enough of the homes we’re building are social rent, which is the only way low-income people can afford to stay in the places they grew up.”
Housing Secretary Michael Gove is set to publish a Tenant Reform Bill, first promised in the 2019 Tory manifesto, which will abolish Section 21 or ‘no fault’ evictions that allow landlords to send tenants back to England on eight weeks’ notice without any explanation.
However, real estate industry groups say caps on rent increases discourage investment and reduce housing construction. Last month the Scottish Property Federation said the SNP’s rent control measures had deterred investors from backing new projects and led them to “divert capital elsewhere”.
—————————————————-
Source link