The National Residential Landlords Associations has expressed relief that Labour appears to be backing away from rent controls.

Association chief executive Ben Beadle says he backs recent comments from prominent party spokespeople.

Beadle states: “We agree with Labour that rent controls would do nothing to address the rental supply crisis that tenants across the country now face.

“What renters need is a proper plan to boost the supply of homes for private rent alongside all other tenures. 

“Housing benefit rates should also be unfrozen without delay to support vulnerable tenants who are struggling to access the rental market.”    

Beadle’s response follows statements that Labour may be rejecting demands for rent controls made by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and others. 

Speaking to a Chartered Institute of Housing conference yesterday the Shadow Housing Secretary, Lisa Nandy MP, said: “As the mortgage crisis deepens – for homeowners and renters alike – it is perhaps inevitable that the debate has turned again to short term fixes.

“And when housebuilding is falling off a cliff and buy-to-let landlords are leaving the market, rent controls that cut rents for some, will almost certainly leave others homeless.

“It might be politically easier to put a sticking plaster on our deep-seated problems, but if it is cowardice that got us here, it is never going to get us out.”

And earlier this week the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford MS, also raised concerns about proposals to freeze rents. 

He said: “As to a rent freeze, it’s a blunt instrument; it has many unintended consequences. We know in Scotland that it has led to a reduction in properties available for rent, because people who have bought properties on a buy-to-let basis themselves face mortgages that have now gone up significantly. 

“The Bank of England estimates that it will take a 20 per cent rise in private sector rents simply to cover the additional costs that buy-to-let landlords now incur. 

“Even the Scottish scheme is not a rent freeze for everybody; it is a rent freeze for some people, in some circumstances. In Wales, we believe there are other measures, and less blunt instruments, that allow us to respond to the people who are in … difficulties.”