Proposed rent controls ‘would be a disaster’

Shadiq Khan

Labour’s proposals to introduce rent controls in London risks reducing the number of private homes available for rent, as landlords look to exit the private rented sector.

Shadiq Khan is being urged to forget about rent controls and instead focus on boosting the supply of rental accommodation in the capital by enticing more people to invest in the PRS.

The Mayor of London has long called on the government to hand him extra powers so he can cap rents in the capital in order to rebalance London’s private rented sector and make it, in his view, “fit for purpose”.

But the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) is warning that plans for rent controls, which are at the heart of Khan’s re-election bid, would be a disaster for aspiring tenants.
The NRLA points to a report published by The Treasury in 2010 under the last Labour government, in which the current mayor was a minister, that warned of the devastating impact such a policy would have on inner city housing.Assessing the impact of rent controls before they were abolished in 1988, the report concluded that they had been a major factor in the “decay of much of the inner city housing stock.”
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, commented: “Rent controls would be a disaster for London as the last Labour government made crystal clear. They would mean tenants actually paying higher rents than leaving them to market forces.“The story of rent controls wherever they have been introduced is that they exacerbate an already serious shortage of available homes.“Rather than calling for things he cannot deliver, the Mayor should focus on using the powers he already has to boost the supply of available housing, including for private rent.”
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5 Comments

  1. Gloslet

    If he wished, the London Mayor could invest and build hundreds of thousands of properties that he could then let at low controlled rents.

    The only sticking point in that plan would be that his voters who are homeowners would not support it, he doesn’t have the money to build them and no outside investor would invest in such a scheme without a commercial rate of return.

    The only option left to him in order to tart himself to generation rent is therefore to shout about controlling and restricting the capital investments and pension savings of others.

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  2. RosBeck73

    I wrote something on this here:

    Kevin Hollinrake and Rosalind Beck: Rent controls would hit London hardest | Conservative Home

     

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  3. Will2

    Like all politicians he is trying to buy renter’s votes. I hope many in outer london and the suburbs will remember he is responsible for the outer london congestion charge of £12 a day within the north/ south circular roads from the autumn which impacts the wider population including many many tenants. Also he has upped the council taxes when many are struggling whilst saying landlords should in his opinion reduce rents. Not to mention lack of policing.   Sadiq I will be rooting for your departure. Mind you there is not one candidate worthy of a vote.

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    1. AcornsRNuts

      He has no power over rent controls, so says he wants rent controls.

      He has no power to make cannabis legal, so says he wants to make it legal.

      He has power to assist the police in reducing knife crime and murder, he says nothing.

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  4. A W

    An idiotic idea from someone who has no idea how the industry works.

    Instead of rent control by “people” who have no idea what the hell they are doing, introduce government backed rent to buy schemes (very different to the scam that is shared ownership).

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