Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said he wants to see rent controls imposed on all private rented homes.

He told the BBC that a “patchwork model” where controls apply to some and not others would cause problems but argued that the right model would stop people being left unable to afford their rent.

Polanski claimed that households would be saving, on average, £3,000 per year if rent controls had been introduced in 2022. “That would put £18 billion of purchasing power back in the pockets of people who are able to spend that on their communities rather than that money going to private landlords,” he said.

His comments go further than those made earlier this year, when he called for mayors to be given the power to set rent controls, based on local incomes, affordability, and housing stock.

Councils

While Polanski acknowledged that Green councils would not be able to introduce rent controls if they win councils on 7th May, he said they would be a “a solid voice” calling on the government to introduce the system. The Green Party also plans to push for rent controls in Wales as the party looks set to win its first seats in the country’s elections on 7th May.

However, the Greens are the only party in England to back rent controls and Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook recently again rejected the initiative, which he said could make life more difficult for renters.

Benefit

“Such controls typically benefit settled and better-off tenants more than those looking for a home or needing to move,” said Pennycook. “While I appreciate that a broad spectrum of regulation falls under the title, there is enough international evidence, in the government’s view, to attest to the potential detrimental impacts of rent controls, and our position remains that we will not introduce them.”

In December, the Green party admitted it only wanted to make life more difficult for private landlords, after delegates at the party’s national conference in Bournemouth voted to abolish them.

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