Jeremy Corbyn’s confirmation that a Labour government would introduce rent controls has come under attack.
Yesterday, at the close of Labour’s party conference, Corbyn said: “We will control rents.
“Rent controls exist in many cities across the world and I want our cities to have those powers too and tenants to have those protections.”
The intention of Labour to introduce rent controls is nothing new: in 2015, then leader Ed Miliband said his party would do just this, capping rents at under the rate of inflation.
Yesterday, David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, said: “The Labour party clearly hasn’t learned the lessons of history.
“The last time rent controls existed the private rented sector went from housing 90% of the population to just 7%.
“Whenever and wherever rent controls are introduced, the quantity of available housing reduces significantly, and the conditions in privately rented properties deteriorate dramatically.
“Landlords, agents, and successive Governments over the last 30 years have worked hard to improve the conditions of rented properties and this is like taking two steps backwards.
“Rent control is not the answer – to bring rent costs down we need a concerted house building effort to increase stock in line with ever-growing demand.”
Shelter also warned against old-fashioned rent controls – with caps likely to be introduced in Scotland within months, after legislation allowing them.
Comments (12)
Seeking to control rents in the absence of a holistic housing policy is like trying to hold back the tide.
So ARLA would prefer 90% of the population to rent again as serfs?
Stupid commentary. Perhaps we should all rent from the monarchy like on the 14th century?
‘ARLA for feudalism’
That way, the PRS hits 99.999…%
I cant understand all this negativity. The country is a mess.The housing market is a mess.i know who I will be voting for next election.
Hopefully not Corbyn, not May nor Mr Cable!!!!!!
The problem is that populist policies win votes because they are popular…
The Baby Boomers have hoarded all the wealth for themselves and essentially wasted it.
2nd houses, 3 cars (one for her, one for me and one for the weekend), foreign holidays 3 times a year, final salary pension plans, free health care, top up benefits for those in employment.
I want all of those things personally, but at what cost – not to me, I work hard and get rewarded for it, but the “me me me” of it all is getting worse and worse.
I’m one of Maggie’s children and she got a lot right, but she got a whole lot wrong too.
The sense of right and wrong, the moral duty to look after friends and family, general altruism and self sacrifice are all things of the past for a huge percentage of the population.
It’s such an awful shame and I’m not sure there’s an easy way back.
I believe 1970’s food is undergoing a renaissance… prawn cocktail, chicken kiev, black forest gateau…. and now we have retro politics
I honestly LIKE chicken kiev – I never really understood how it managed to get such a bad reputation…
As with the majority of socialist dogma, “nice idea in principle never works in practice” Socialists don’t seem to understand simple economics, if you want an extensive good quality housing stock it has to be paid for one way or another. Their answer is always to tax the “rich” which in essence means taxing the contributors to society. The trouble with that is there is always a limit as to what the contributors will put up with. When the “Rich” eventually decide to take their ball away there is no game to be played and the people the Socialists profess to be helping, suffer the most.
The real problem here is that socialism, particularly Mr Corbyn’s version of it, is, and will never be a viable method of governess. It has more similarities to a type of religion. Its advocates are unable to listen to reasoning or debate because they are so overwhelmed by their own religious fervor and sense of righteousness. They think it is acceptable to bark down any reasonable argument as evil baby killers simply because it doesn’t fit in their Utopian ideal of how they feel the world should be
Sorry A bit heavy for a Thursday morning!
Labour/Corbyn have gone
“FullRetard”……………………………..its amazing the depth and control Labour want over people and businesss. Staggering at their arrogance, incompetence and ability to forward think.But with their Abbotness of calculations in how to run a country and sole aim of getting into power no matter what the cost it a scary vision of the future.
He is appealing to the young who are yet to experience the world of politics. If they are politicians they all speak with fork tongue. They are as bad as any scammer. The young virgin voters will learn in time as they mature. Politicians have all lost credibility.Rent control in and I will turn to holiday lets. Tenants will find it harder to rent anywhere!
Corbyn will only be happy when he has dragged this country back to the mid 1970s. No thanks.
Labour doesn’t learn from history. Labour ignores history in the pursuit of ideology