Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has confirmed the government will not support the introduction of rent controls, following the Green Party’s calls to do so ahead of local elections next month.
Speaking in the House of Commons this week, Pennycook said the government opposes private rent controls and claimed the policy “could make life more difficult for renters”.
Last week, Green Party leader Zack Polanski launched the party’s local election campaign, in which he pledged to give local authorities the power to introduce rent controls in their areas to “curb overheating rents in their area”.
Polanski said: “The affordability crisis is something affecting nearly everyone, from the most vulnerable to people in work and comfortable, where any change in circumstance can push people over the edge into requiring a foodbank.
“This crisis is totally avoidable and down to choices made by this Labour government and previous Tory governments. The Greens have a plan that would make different choices, taking on corporate power and vested interests to give ordinary people a way out of this crisis.”
In response, Pennycook said: “Such controls typically benefit settled and better-off tenants more than those looking for a home or needing to move.
“While I appreciate that a broad spectrum of regulation falls under the title, there is sufficient international evidence from countries such as Sweden and Germany and from individual cities such as San Francisco, as well as the recent Scottish experience, to attest to the potential detrimental impacts of rent controls on tenants. Our position remains that we will not introduce them.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also set out his party’s local election proposals this week, in which he said housebuilders should be forced to build new or expanded GP surgeries as part of every new development in the country.
Davey said the party would pass a law requiring developers to build or fund new surgeries via taxes levied on them, which would have to be completed by the time residents moved in.
Local elections will take place on 7 May.
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