Policy bid is rumoured to be given green light next week but has been savaged by Tory mayor candidate Shaun Bailey as ‘disastrous’.

Next week Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is to ask central government for powers to introduce rent controls in London, it has been claimed by Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey.

Khan has been looking at introducing a ‘stabilisation’ form of rent control that would cap rent rises within London’s private rented sector after doing a U-turn on the policy recently.

Last year Khan said in a consultation document that: “The Mayor will consider what measures would limit unacceptable rent increases without negatively impacting on housing supply, and how they could work in the capital”.

RENT CAP CONTROLS

Khan does not have the powers to introduce such a policy yet, but late last year revealed that he thought the “housing crisis is now having such an effect on a generation of Londoners that the arguments in favour of rent stabilisation and control are becoming overwhelming”.

The proposed rent cap powers are expected within his much anticipated ‘London Model’ blueprint for the capital’s rental market.

It has been in development since last year and is expected to also include proposals for mandatory open-ended tenancies.

But the mayor’s proposals have been savaged by Shaun Bailey (left) in a series of tweets, calling the proposal to introduce rent controls ‘disastrous’, claiming that they would “would take a bad London housing and rental market situation and make it worse”.

“Over time rent controls push landlords out of the market – reducing supply – and generate less investment in properties, lowering the quality on offer,” he said.

“Does London really want to be a place like New York where people scour the obituaries hoping to score a ‘rent-controlled’ flat?”.

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