Sadiq Khan to keep London rent control policy in election manifesto
Sadiq Khan is set to keep his trademark rent control policy as a key part of his mayoral election manifesto, despite London’s plummeting rental prices.
The mayor of London will double down on his call for central government to hand him powers to implement a cap on rents in London if he wins the May election, with Khan’s manifesto set to come out in six weeks’ time.
Khan launched his re-election campaign last year, before the mayoral election was postponed for 12 months, by announcing he wanted to make the poll a “referendum on rent controls”.
He said at his campaign launch event that a victory would provide him with a mandate to be given powers by Boris Johnson to implement rent controls.
A source close to the mayor told City PM today that the rent control policy will not be the centrepiece of his election election offering this year, but that it would still feature prominently in the manifesto.
Khan’s deputy mayor for housing Tom Copley said in June that the “case for the government to give Sadiq Khan powers to introduce his London Model of renting alongside rent control has never been stronger”.
Rents in the capital had risen by 27 per cent in the 10 years leading up to March 2020, however the picture has rapidly changed.
Data from property website Rightmove shows rents in London are down 12.4 per cent compared to one year ago as a part of a larger trend in the UK’s largest cities.
The pandemic has seen renters move away from congested cities in the past year en masse.
The Adam Smith Institute, a free market think tank and longtime opponent of rent controls, said the pandemic provided an even stronger case for Khan to ditch the policy.
Its head of governemnt affairs John Macdonald said: “Rent controls might be superficially appealing to those that see high rents as a symptom of landlord greed, but they will only exacerbate the underlying problem – a lack of new residential buildings in London.
“Rent controls fail everywhere they are tried, and London would be no exception. Rent controls aren’t the answer, building more homes is.”
Khan’s office was contacted for comment.