Emily Thornberry calls for the introduction of rent controls in ‘housing crisis zones’
"I think that people are taking the mickey out of this, people are making huge profits out of this."
Labour MP Emily Thornberry has called for the introduction of rent controls in what she has described as ‘housing crisis zones’. She made the comments at a fringe event hosted by More in Common at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Thornberry told the meeting: “We need to be able to address people’s concerns. So when you speak to a lot of people, in the South particularly – and speaking as one of the queens of the South – I would say that what many of my constituents and people around the South say is there is an absolute housing crisis. And the housing crisis is showing for most generations, the younger generations – those under 40 – that they can’t get anywhere to live, it’s just too expensive.
“And so, I think that we need be able to have the power to decide that there are housing crisis zones and when there are housing crisis zones that we should have rent controls. And I just think that we should.
“I think that people are taking the mickey out of this, people are making huge profits out of this. And I think in certain areas – you could use some sort of metric, where [rent] is more than 70 per cent of the average wage for example – that’s a housing crisis zone and we should double down on some of the work that we’ve done so far.”
Thornberry went on to argue for more housebuilding and in support of the governments changes to planning rules.
She said: “We should just have a plan about it, and say that we’ve got that, that’s part of the plan. But also part of the plan is that we’re changing planning which I heartily approve of because in the end the only way to get through a housing crisis as well – you get rid of some of the symptoms with rent controls in housing crisis areas – but really what you need is more houses. You have to build more houses and we have to get on with it and we have to start saying yes and stop saying no all the time.”
Despite the enthusiasm for rent controls from some corners of the Labour Party, the government has made clear that it does not currently plan to introduce them. Housing secretary Angela Rayner has said: “We won’t be looking at rent controls”.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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