Zack Polanski

Green Party leader Zack Polanski will deliver a keynote speech on rent controls at the launch of a new policy paper tomorrow, as debate over intervention in the private rented sector continues.

The event will mark the publication of Taking Back Control of Rents: The Impact of Rent Regulation on Affordability, Public Spending and Landlord Profits, a report jointly published by the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and the New Economics Foundation.

Polanski will be joined by speakers including Josh Ryan-Collins, report co-author Beth Stratford, and Pete Ely.

The launch will take place at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose in London.

Earlier this year Polanski laid out his plans to end what he deemed “rip-off Britain” and back the UK’s “caring majority” over elites in a major speech to the New Economics Foundation setting out out the Green Party leader’s economic agenda.

In the speech, Polanski lamented the changes to Britain’s economy over the last 40 years which he believes have made life harder for ordinary people, and set out the framework of the Green Party’s plans to “rebalance the scales”, including the introduction of rent controls.

On rent controls, Polanski said: “If we had frozen rents in autumn 2022, households in Britain would be saving over £3,300 per year on average. Across Britain, that would put £18bn of purchasing power back in the pockets of ordinary people – money that could be spent in local businesses, buying a coffee on the way to work or a few pints at the end of a hard week.

“Instead? straight into landlords’ pockets – leaving our high streets hollowed out. Our brilliant Green MP Carla Denyer tried to fix this scandal, pushing for rent controls to be included in the Renters Rights Bill – but this Labour government just wouldn’t listen. A Green government would bring in rent controls. We would stop the chokehold of rip-off rents and breathe life back into our communities.”