Mayor reaffirms support for rent control after pressure from Zoë Garbett AM

Rent controls are back the Mayor’s agenda after he promised Zoë Garbett he would write to the housing minister today when she revealed Government hasn’t been lobbied on this key issue.

Zoë questioned the Mayor on two key commitments – to ask for the powers to bring in rent controls and to fund unions specifically supporting London’s 2.7 million private renters – neither of which have seen any progress since his election.

Renters’ unions haven’t yet received a penny from the Mayor and in September the Government confirmed that it: “has not received direct representations from the Mayor of London or Mayors of other Strategic Authorities in respect of rent controls, and we have not discussed their introduction at a local level.”

Green Party Member of the London Assembly, Zoë Garbett, says:

“Londoners are paying through the nose on rent, keeping a roof over our heads is gobbling up more than 40 per cent of wages and prices keep rising – renters need more support, it’s that simple.

 “Rent controls should be at the top of the agenda and pleased the Mayor will now take this urgent issue to Government today.

“While funding has been made available to some great organisations the missing piece of the puzzle is supporting renters unions – these are often member-funded, grassroots organisations doing frontline work for people being crushed by the private renter sector.

“The Mayor made important commitments to London renters – I will continue to hold him to them.”