Shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy’s statement today that Labour will not support rent controls has been welcomed by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA).
NRLA chief executive of Ben Beadle (pictured) says: “We agree with Labour that rent controls would do nothing to address the rental supply crisis that tenants across the country now face”.
“What renters need is a proper plan to boost the supply of homes for private rent alongside all other tenures. Housing benefit rates should also be unfrozen without delay to support vulnerable tenants who are struggling to access the rental market.”
Presenting today at the Chartered Institute of Housing’s ‘Housing 2023’ conference, the shadow housing secretary said: “As the mortgage crisis deepens – for homeowners and renters alike – it is perhaps inevitable that the debate has turned again to short term fixes.
“And when housebuilding is falling off a cliff and buy-to-let landlords are leaving the market, rent controls that cut rents for some, will almost certainly leave others homeless.
“It might be politically easier to put a sticking plaster on our deep-seated problems, but if it is cowardice that got us here, it is never going to get us out.”
Earlier this week, Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS, also raised concerns about proposals to freeze rents. He called a rent freeze a blunt instrument to deal with the problem and that it would likely have many unintended consequences.
“We know in Scotland that it has led to a reduction in properties available for rent, because people who have bought properties on a buy-to-let basis themselves face mortgages that have now gone up significantly.
He added “The Bank of England estimates that it will take a 20% rise in private sector rents simply to cover the additional costs that buy-to-let landlords now incur. Even the Scottish scheme is not a rent freeze for everybody; it is a rent freeze for some people, in some circumstances”.
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