Generation Rent is appealing to Labour’s grassroots to launch more radical policies than those in the Renters Rights Act.
The activist group says the party must implement rent controls – until now, explicitly ruled out by Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer – or risk losing electoral support from private renters.
Generation Rent’s campaigns chief, Nye Jones, used a political website called LabourList to issue his demand.
LabourList is funded by unions and individual donations, and says it appeals to the party’s “grassroots”.
Generation Rent has close Labour links. Its board chairperson is former Labour MP Dame Karen Buck and its chief executive is former Labour election candidate Ben Twomey.
Nye tells activist readers of the website that the Renters Rights Act contains “a glaring hole” because it “does not tackle the soaring cost of renting”.
He goes on: “We believe a common sense solution to this problem is a cap on how much landlords can raise the rent, linked to the lower of inflation or wage growth. This would protect renters from sudden, unaffordable rent hikes, while still giving landlords room to raise the rent modestly in line with inflation.”
He claims deferring a decision to take up a more radical policy risks electoral consequences for Labour.
He says private renters were the most likely tenure type to vote for Labour in 2024. And has says recent polling shows the party losing support to alternative parties on the left – who, he says, advocate rent controls.
And he raises this spectre: “With Green Leader Zack Polanski enthusiastically supporting rent controls, polling shows the Greens have already taken one sixth of Labour’s support from the last election and are likely to win many traditionally Labour seats in urban areas.”
He also has a swipe at the current leadership of Labour, writing: “Starmer categorically said that people who receive additional income from assets such as property wouldn’t come within his definition of working people. Half of private renters have no savings whatsoever, while the vast majority are working.
“Meanwhile, just 42% of landlords declare mortgage interest payments on their tax returns, meaning close to three in five … don’t have a mortgage.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today