London Labour Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has returned to his long running – and so far unsuccessful – campaign, to win powers to impose private sector rent controls.
He’s now pledged to write to the Housing Secretary, Steve Reed. His previous attempts, lobbying former Housing Secretary Angela Rayner and Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer, have ended in failure.
His pledge came in a London Assembly debate when Green Party member Zoë Garbett – another rent control enthusiast – urged the Mayor to renew his campaign, and to fund protest groups supporting her opinion.
She says: “Londoners are paying through the nose on rent, keeping a roof over our heads is gobbling up more than 40 per cent of wages and prices keep rising – renters need more support, it’s that simple. Rent controls should be at the top of the agenda and I’m pleased the Mayor will now take this urgent issue to Government today.
“While funding has been made available to some great organisations the missing piece of the puzzle is supporting renters unions – these are often member-funded, grassroots organisations doing frontline work for people being crushed by the private renter sector.
“The Mayor made important commitments to London renters – I will continue to hold him to them.”
This article is taken from Landlord Today