ARLA has slammed Labour’s intention to introduce rent controls if it gets into power at the next general election.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said in a speech which also promised 32-hour working weeks, that Labour would “cap rents and build a million genuinely affordable new homes so young people in particular aren’t pouring away thousands of pounds from their wages to rip-off landlords”.
But David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, said: “Rent controls do not work.
“They hit hardest those they are designed to help the most.
“The last time rent controls existed in this country, the private rented sector shrunk to the lowest levels ever recorded.
“At a time of demand for PRS homes massively outstripping supply, rent controls will cause the sector to shrink.
“In turn, this means professional landlords will only take the very best tenants, and the vulnerable and low-income people that rent controls are designed to help will be forced into the hands of rogue and criminal operators, who may exploit them.”
Labour has also said it wants to compulsorily purchase homes left empty after six months, and the ‘worst’ private rental properties.
Comments (5)
Hsg & tax/social policy must be correctly informed by facts & proper socio-econ analysis. Symptom treating by just bldg more leaves homeless on the streets & prices inflating = compounding hsg wealth at the top & trickle up hsg poverty from the bottom.
Media & politicians promote symptom-treating: bld more & smaller, cut regns & costs, tax breaks & subsidies. They risk HIGHER PRICES & SLUMS.
1. LAND is uniquely VALUE EXTRACTING. Hse prices bear no relat to the COST OF PROD’N & are determined by MONEY SUPPLY.
2. 20 yrs ultra-low int credit COMPOUNDS prices. A deposit from a pension-boomer levers 10x new credit for a descendant.
3. All rising mkts attract SPECULATORS & INVESTORS.
4. Financialisation thus constantly raises the WHOLE PRICE LEVEL giving free wealth to exstg owners, while wages in the PRODUCTIVE econ follow normal infl’n. An AFFORDABILITY gulf expands between the VALUE CREATING & VALUE EXTRACTING economies.
5. Prices are set by by a small No. of marginal transactions & new units sell at exstg prices. Those priced out today will still be priced out tomorrow.
6. Germany has stable hse prices, reasonable qlty & supply + long-term RENT CONTROLS & tenant security. Prices/rents stay in line with the PRODUCTIVE economy so that DEVT is a NORMAL PROFIT making activity & not a specul’n.
Dear Labour
I don’t want to work a 4 day week.
I don’t want free prescriptions.
I don’t want free things.
I want to be self sufficient and not rely on the state.
I want to invest my hard earned income in assets that will hopefully grow
Oh wait
If you take my garden that I paid for out of earned income that has already been heavily taxed so that I could choose to grow vegetables and have rescue dogs and if you make me sell my houses at a discount to tenants then I won’t have a pension.
Labour the party of the future for anyone without ambition or forward thinking.
I live in a Labour stronghold area presumably because of the myth that they are the Party looking after the working class.
What do you expect from a Marxist. They will destroy this country and our industry that may never recover.
This is an outstanding well thought out policy that is currently boosting the economies and standard of living in the the countries listed below:
1. N Korea 2. N Korea 3. N Korea 4. N Korea 5. N Korea 6. N Korea 7. N Korea 8. N Korea 9. N Korea 10. N Korea
Abolishing public schools, a four day week, wages for nothing and now it seems housing controls. Sounds like an African dictatorship!
Have the left gone mad? A bizarre 1970’s utopia… it didn’t work then, and it won’t work now!