Candidates in next month’s Holborn and St Pancras by election in London have been lobbied to demand rent controls

The Generation Rent activist group – led by a new chief executive, who worked for Labour’s John Healey before taking up her new job – says it’s written to what it calls “key” candidates.

On social media the group says Camden – the borough in which the constituency sits – is the fourth least affordable London borough for private renters

And it claims the someone paying the average rent in Camden will pay their landlords £134,000 in four years. 

The campaign group claims that the by election – on October 8 – is an opportunity to show “that rent controls are a vote winner.”

Labour and the Greens are favourites to win the poll, caused by the resignation of Sir Kier Starmer from Parliament.

The Greens are long-standing advocates of rent controls and Labour has already restricted rent rises through the Renters Rights Act, aided by the upcoming mandatory landlord database.