Coming Soon - “Bold” new proposals for private re...

An influential Labour website says a raft of proposed reforms for the private rental sector will be unveiled next month - but they are not guaranteed to become party policy.

LabourList says the reforms are contained in a report by Stephen Cowan, the Labour leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council in west London.

A year ago he was asked by the then-shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy to compile a review and LabourList says this will now be published soon after the May 2 local elections.

LabourList says: “One source stressed it was an independent review, while another predicted it would include some bold proposals. Labour is expected to consider it in detail once it has been published … One source told LabourList they did not expect Cowan’s report to recommend rent controls.”

Last week London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan announced the concept of “rent control homes” - 6,000 of them in the capital - which would be built using public money and then levying rent capped at the level of local key workers.

Khan also vowed to be a “renters’ champion” spending up to £4m on a “licensing hub” to fund groups like renters’ unions, investing in advice for renters, and supporting renters to get rent rebates.

Meanwhile Labour’s current shadow housing secretary - deputy party leader Angela Rayner - continues to deny media claims about her tax affairs.

In 2015 Rayner bought her ex-council house and made £48,000 on the sale which, if it was not her principal property, would have been eligible for Capital Gains Tax.

Rayner maintains this was her primary home and therefore she was exempt from this tax.

But the Daily Mail says that according to her social media and Twitter accounts, it has evidence to suggest she should have paid more CGT precisely because that house was not her primary property.

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