Labour commits to introducing rent controls

Labour commits to introducing rent controls

14:41 PM, 27th September 2017, About 7 years ago 71

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In Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the Labour party conference today in Brighton he committed the party to introducing rent controls if they got into power.

In his speech Corbyn said:”We will control rents, when the young generation’s housing costs are three times more than that of their grandparents. That is unsustainable.”

“Homes should be for the many not speculative investments for a few.”

“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”

No further details of how rent controls would work precisely were given in the speech. However, Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s general election co-ordinator, later said “if New York has them then London can have them.”

Gwynne indicated that rents have soared under an unregulated rental market and action is needed to bring the costs down which will be fleshed out in a Green Paper in due course.

On the availability of housing in general Corbyn went on to say: “We also need to tax undeveloped land held by developers and have the power to compulsorily purchase.

“When councils come forward with proposals for regeneration, we will put down two markers based on one simple principle – regeneration under a Labour government will be for the benefit of the local people, not private developers, not property speculators.

“First, people who live on an estate that’s redeveloped must get a home on the same site and the same terms as before. No social cleansing, no jacking up rents, no exorbitant ground rents. And second, councils will have to win a ballot of existing tenants and leaseholders before any redevelopment scheme can take place. Real regeneration, yes, but for the many not the few.”

Editors Note:

ONS Chart below provided by Property118 member

 


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Comments

Dr Rosalind Beck

8:49 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

He's seeing Venezuela as his role model again:

https://capx.co/the-dark-side-of-price-controls-in-venezuela/

Neil Patterson

8:55 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Polly Neate, Shelter CEO, said: “Shelter supports controls that lengthen tenancies and protect families from unfair rent rises but not old fashioned rent-setting which we think could end up harming the very people on low incomes they’re meant to help, if and when landlords sell their properties.”

terry sullivan

9:40 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Neil Patterson at 28/09/2017 - 08:55
now that robb has gone to infest JRF--shelter may actually wise up--but i doubt it. why it has charitable status is beyond me--its basically troughing on the public sector, has a massive taxpayer funded income but provides no housing whatsoever!

NW Landlord

9:53 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Hi mark excuse my ignorance but what are EPUT unit trusts ?

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

9:56 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

NW Landlord

9:57 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

I think they may get in which is the scary thing. They are tapping into the lost youth who feel hard done to on housing' poor job prospects, student debt and so on. The vote of this group should not be underestimated. Coupled with the mess the torys are in I see a perfect storm for this communist nut job shaking his magic money tree and sprinkling his magic beans everywhere.

Lindsey

10:04 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Reply to the comment left by NW Landlord at 28/09/2017 - 09:57
The only thing that will save this country from the Cult of Corbyn (which contracts quite strangely with the "for the many, not the few" tag) is a drastic remodelling of the way that the Conservative party is viewed. In the spirit of that, I have dragged my old Thatcherite bones out of the moaning corner and am interviewing shortly to stand for local Council. Every little helps. The problem is that the Conservatives have been tainted by the elitism of the last contingent, and have not mastered Corbyn's guerilla marketing techniques (it's a little late to say they're not appropriate in politics - although they are not - after the Jezza Glasto roadshow. The youth are disenfranchised and this is what they are used to, so it's what they relate to. And I for one am not prepared to let him have it all his own way. A Corbyn government would be a disaster for the country as a whole, including the youth and the disabled, whom he claims to represent.

NW Landlord

10:08 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

Hi mark

Is it something that maybe brought as an opportunity through 118 once it has been looked into ?

Anne Nixon

10:25 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

It is often overlooked that rental values are a direct correlation of property purchase prices. Rental yields in London just now are at rock bottom simply because of the boom in prices, even though rents themselves are unaffordable for many.

What is Corbyn suggesting then, that a landlord receives less in rent than he pays on his mortgage??

Councils rubbed their hands together at the windfalls that came with the right to buy debacle and spent the money on goodness knows what but it wasn't housing, and they now seek to screw private landlords - it's total madness.

There is only one solution to the housing crisis and rent controls are not it. There needs to be a massive house building program, particularly in the South East, and then rents will find their own levels.

david corless

10:26 AM, 28th September 2017, About 7 years ago

i would not worry
since when has a politician come through on a promice
its just party talk to show off in front of tv
like all his other sh......

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