Sep

Labour commits to introducing rent controls

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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.”

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