Labour’s candidate for London Mayor desires to regulate personal rents – and he desires the capital to be a template for different bug UK cities.
Sadiq Khan has instructed the Independent newspaper that the introduction of rent controls in London could be replicated in different cities the place housing is unaffordable.
The London Mayoralty doesn’t embrace powers to regulate rents however on the final ballot for the publish – in 2016 – Khan referred to as for elevated authority over the personal rental sector.
For this election – going down as we speak – he’s completed the identical, and tells the paper: “I’m in favour of the federal government giving me the powers to herald rent controls. I believe we’ve acquired to recognise that London is completely different to the remainder of the nation when it comes to housing want.
“The common value of a one-bedroom dwelling in London is greater than the typical value of a three-bedroom dwelling in the remainder of England.”
Figures have proven rents have really fallen in London over the previous 15 months however Khan is unrepentant.
“Rents might have fallen barely in London through the pandemic as a result of some Londoners have briefly left the town […] however that is solely a short lived blip. My fear is that in a couple of months’ time hopefully we could have an [economic] restoration however we are going to be within the state of affairs we had earlier than.”
Lettings commerce our bodies have taken difficulty with Khan’s bid for energy over rents.
An evaluation by the National Residential Landlords Association reveals that personal rents have fallen yearly in actual phrases all through Khan’s interval of workplace and at the moment are practically 10 per cent decrease than 5 years in the past when in comparison with the Retail Price Index.
The NRLA says figures from the Office for National Statistics present that rents within the capital have fallen by 9.6 per cent between April 2016 (the month earlier than Khan first got here to workplace) and February 2021.
Even in comparison with the Consumer Price Index – together with housing prices, which the federal government has stated it plans to start out utilizing – rents fell by 5.1 per cent over the identical interval.
The NRLA is warning that any transfer to regulate rent rises by linking them to inflation would go away tenants worse off.
You can see the Khan interview within the Independent right here.
