New deputy Hackney mayor Dylan Law has declared that private landlords shouldn’t make a profit and could reduce rents by thousands of pounds.

Together with colleague and new mayor Zoë Garbett, the 20-year-old Green party councillor unseated Labour from power in the east London borough after 24 years. Law was elected as a councillor for Hackney Downs ward on Friday, becoming one of the youngest councillors in the country.

As London Assembly Member for the Greens, Garbett has relentlessly urged Sadiq Khan to back rent controls and fund renters’ unions. However, her deputy appears to want to go even further.

Law told an interviewer: “I don’t see why any landlord is making profit off rent, off housing. If I pay rent to my house, it is for a human right. I’m paying just to maintain that home. I think that should be the basis. So if it has to be a thing where a two-bedroom flat literally is £600 maximum then it is what it has to be. And for all the landlords who complain about that…it’s tough luck.”

Plan

His extraordinary idea would mean a drop of nearly £2,000 per month for landlords as property websites show the average rent in the area for a two-bedroom flat is about £2,600.

The Greens pushed Hackney Council to bring in tougher landlord licensing with a borough-wide additional scheme and selective licensing scheme in 17 of its 21 wards - 76% of privately rented homes – which launched on 1st May. However, it has ambitions to go further, and, in its manifesto, the party pledged to seek to expand landlord licensing to cover the whole borough.

Sums

It said it would put an end to private renters in Hackney "paying eye-watering sums in rent every month, while too many landlords are failing to maintain safe, decent homes".

It also promised that a Green-led Hackney Council would push for local rent control powers, provide better training for police officers on the law regarding renters’ rights, so that officers are able to identify and stop unlawful evictions and support leaseholders to hold managing agents to account, including setting up right to manage companies.

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